Growth of the SoilThe epic novel of man and nature that won its author the Nobel Prize in Literature, in the first new English translation in more than ninety years A Penguin Classic When it was first published in 1917, Growth of the Soil was immediately recognized as a masterpiece. Ninety years later it remains a transporting literary experience. In the story of Isak, who leaves his village to clear a homestead and raise a family amid the untilled tracts of the Norwegian back country, Knut Hamsun evokes the elemental bond between humans and the land. Newly translated by the acclaimed Hamsun scholar Sverre Lyngstad, Hamsun's novel is a work of preternatural calm, stern beauty, and biblical power—and the crowning achievement of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. |
Contents
Introduction | ix |
Suggestions for Further Reading | xix |
Growth of the Soil | xxi |
Explanatory Notes | 325 |
Textual Notes | |
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Aaronsen Aksel Strøm Andresen animals answer anymore anyway Barbro Bergen boys BRAD LEITHAUSER Brede Olsen Breidablik brought child cloudberry coffee copper mountain cowshed door slab Eleseus everything eyes farm father feel folks Geissler gentlemen girl give goat cheese goats Goldenhorn gone gotten Gudbrandsdal Gustaf Hamsun hand harelip head heard Heyerdahl horse infanticide Inger asked Inger replied Isak asked Isak replied Isak's Jensine knew Knut Hamsun kroner Lapps Leopoldine Little Sivert look machine Måneland mother mountain mowing never nice night nodded Oline once Os-Anders potatoes ring sawmill says sell Sellanrå sheep sheriff sheriff's wife soil someone stay stone stopped Storborg sure Sweden talk telegraph tell things thought took Trondhjem turned Uncle Sivert village walk What's wilds winter woman woods would've