Hunger: Classic Book Guide and Free Edition
Hunger: author and translator credits, catalogue synopsis, subjects and links to the Gutenberg reading formats.
Hunger is catalogued by Project Gutenberg with author credits for Hamsun, Knut (1859–1952). The listed translation credits are Egerton, George (1859–1945).
Catalogue synopsis
Project Gutenberg supplies this automated synopsis of the opening text:
"Hunger" by Knut Hamsun is a novel written in the late 19th century. It is a stark, psychologically intimate portrait of a destitute young writer wandering Christiania, tracing his pride, imagination, and desperation as hunger frays his mind. The focus is less on plot than on a vivid inner life—restless thoughts, sudden exaltations, and humiliations—rendered in intense, impressionistic prose. The opening of the novel follows an unnamed aspiring writer as he wakes in a bare attic, broke and hungry, and drifts through Christiania trying to write, find work, and keep his dignity. He pawns his waistcoat to give a coin to a lame stranger, buys a meager meal, and oscillates between grand ideas (new essays and “philosophical” treatises) and erratic impulses (taunting a woman he dubs Ylajali, spinning lies for a credulous old man). He submits a literary sketch to a newspaper and clings to hope while dodging his landlady, then abandons his room and spends a cold, miserable night in the woods. Hunger sharpens and distorts his perceptions; small slights enrage him, and brief bursts of inspiration give way to emptiness. By the end of this opening, rebuffed for a bookkeeping job over a foolish date error, he is weakened and ashamed, yet still forcing a polite front as he tries to seize any chance—such as an advertised job helping an invalid—that might keep him going.
Book and edition facts
- Title: Hunger
- Author credits: Hamsun, Knut (1859–1952)
- Catalogue language: English
- Translator credits: Egerton, George (1859–1945)
Catalogue subjects
- Authors -- Fiction
- Hunger -- Fiction
- Norway -- Fiction
- Starvation -- Fiction
- Urban poor -- Fiction
Gutenberg collections
- Category: Classics of Literature
- Category: Novels
- Nobel Prizes in Literature
Read this edition
View the complete Gutenberg catalogue record. Project Gutenberg identifies this edition as public domain in the United States; that designation does not establish its copyright status in every country.
Source notes
Catalogue metadata is public domain and is supplied through Gutendex, which imports Gutenberg's machine-readable catalogue. The automated synopsis is source-supplied, not an independently verified review. Author dates above describe the credited people; no ebook release date is presented as the book's original publication date.
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