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Wanderers

Chapter 7 No.7

Word Count: 945    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

hrew all the blame on the priest, saying it was his idea, but that I had backed him up. Grindhusen had no objection; he

came out on Monday morning, and

ell up on the hill, and lay down a pipe-line to

ught it was a

he well, Grindhusen began to suspect I'd had more to do with it than I had said.

hirty's plen

would cost a gre

a couple of hundred Kroner

a of estimates at all

ndred Kroner's a de

sa

much less in Aabo

ooked at me

thinking of leaving

of it. And may your reverence live

iest stared at

is you

Pede

are you

Nord

sked, and resolved not to tal

pipe-line were decided

adly for some nights. But once that fear was past, all that remained was simple and straightforward work. There was water enough; after a coup

the old days at Skreia. Then we put in another week digging, and by that time we had carried it deep enough. The bo

r together; and when he found that I asked no more than a fair labourer's wage, though much of the work was done under my directions, he was inclined to do something for me in ret

a nail from some corpse. I wanted a nail; it was a fancy of mine, a little whim. I had found a nice piece of birch-root that I wanted to carve to a pipe-bowl in the shape

le, too, I would see and arrive at some feeling of respect for the sacredness of the church and terror of the dead; I had still a memory of that rich mysticism from days now far, far behind, and wishe

e wouldn't creak so," Gri

you a

s you a creeping feeling now and then to th

py

learn it in the days when I was at school. But now I'd seen the way of it, I went about planting busily on Sundays; a

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Wanderers
Wanderers
“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.”