Wanderers

Chapter 3 No.3

Word Count: 789 | Released on: 06/12/2017

le house, the north side, facing the sea, is done all gaily in red. At the mid-day rest, I go o

ut if any one comes along and asks if I can paint a bit of a wa

d done painting Gunhild's cottage-two coats it was to have-he was going off to the vicarage to dig a well. There was always work of some sort to be had about the villages. And when winter set in, and the frost began to b

rindhusen, "I know what I'd do. I'd

a brickla

truth. But when that well's dug, why, i

lence from every tree in the wood. And now, look you, there are but few of the small birds left; only some crows flying mutel

aper now these last two weeks, and, for all that, here I am, alive and well, making great progress in re

here's Grindhusen, now, I say to myself; did you mark when he lit his pipe, how he used the match to the very last of it, and never burned his horny fingers

and hauling bits of driftwood ashore. The stars are out, and there is a moon. In a couple of hours Grindhusen comes back, with a good set of

, and we go each

at and go off fishing, so as not to be there when he leaves. I catch no fish, and it is cold sitting in the boat; I look at my watch again and again. At last, a

; it was like a calling from my youth, f

oss to hi

g that well

to take anoth

for me here, while I go u

eard Grindhusen

ight. And I don't believ

ute. I'll be dow

e beach to wait. He knows I've some of

Chapter End

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Wanderers

Knut Hamsun Literature

“The Wanderer, which consists of two closely related novels, Under the Autumn Star and On Muted Strings, has been acclaimed as one of Knut Hamsun's finest works. The narrator, Knut Pedersen (Hamsun's real name), is an unsimple character in search of the simple life, which he hopes to attain by wandering round the Norwegian countryside doing such work as he can find. His quest is continually frustrated, not least by his susceptibility to the wives and daughters of successive employers. In Under the Autumn Star he joins forces first with Grindhusen, a man blessed with the faith that "something will turn up"; later with Lars Falkenberg, whose dubious talents include the tuning of pianos. Knut and Lars end up as workmen on the estate of a certain Captain Falkenberg (no relation), with whose wife each falls in love. In due course, Knut is laid off and, in futile pursuit of the woman with whom by now he is helplessly infatuated, eventually finds himself sucked back into the city he once fled. "A wanderer plays on muted strings," explains Knut, now six years older, "when he reaches the age of two score years and ten." Among this sequel's qualities is the poignancy with which it conveys that sense of aging. Both novels show Hamsun at the height of his powers: lyrical and passionate, ironic yet deeply humane, master of one of the most original prose styles in modern literature, brilliantly translated here by Oliver and Gunnvor Stallybrass.”