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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Gun violence
''Ridică paharul pentru acea zi scurtă, fericită de vară care este copilăria...''
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
dark
emotional
reflective
I loved the prose, but disliked the ending. "She danced herself to death" is a very victorian weak-woman trope that I dislike. Additionally, there were some racial bits that made me uncomfortable such as the "chocolate-coloured slave girls" and the life of a blonde daughter being prized over brunette daughters.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Johannes is low-born miller’s son. Victoria is an aristocrat with a family desperate to somewhat salvage their lost fortune. Their love isn’t enough for the rules of a class-bound society are harder to break than granite.
It is a story as old as time in many ways. One comparison that definitely comes to my educated in a Polish high school mind is “The Doll” (“Lalka”) by Bolesław Prus. The Johannes of that story is somewhat more well-off (having earned quite a fortune in trade abroad) but his very own Victoria is just as afraid to lose by marrying beneath station (she was, by all means, much worse a character than Victoria though). It seems like 19th century society, be that in Norway or Poland or I guess even in Dickens’ novels, was just as strict everywhere and to break away required immense means and willpower.
Admittedly, I wasn’t quite as taken with the story Knut Hamsun penned as I was enchanted by his penmanship skills alone. I do blame my high school education and plethora of obligatory reads that would exhaust that particular trope to shreds. I’m just way too familiarized with how it all worked back then and thus it doesn’t excite me much anymore.
That is not to say I didn’t enjoy this book. I believe that its true phenomenon lies in the author’s skill to write beautifully, lyrically, breathtakingly. It definitely felt like that to me as it was the passages of (inner and outer) monologues that read the fastest, with the most ease. Dialogue parts often appeared to be forced and unnatural, perhaps to mirror the characters’ inability to properly express their feelings and showcase the awkwardness of it all, of that, however, if it was done with intent, I cannot be certain.
I read it in the span of a few days, or… evenings is probably best to call it. A part of me wanted to prolong my reading it, to cherish the words for a little bit longer because they were beautiful even if the characters themselves weren’t my “kind” of people, even if their undecidedness annoyed me a great deal. I was torn while I was reading it, yeah, between enjoying the book for all the technical reasons and disliking it for whom it portrayed. (I seem to have this problem with a lot of classics… that I don’t often connect with the characters and my reading of said novel mostly consists of deep appreciation of how well it was written. Can’t have it all, can we? Haha.)
I’d recommend this to fans of classic literature, and those who wish to discover something new (I hadn’t even heard a beep of this novel until my mum found it in my late grandfather’s apartment but I don’t know, maybe I just missed the buzz somehow) but at the same time old (published in 1898!). I don’t think it is to be read quickly. The poetry of it might escape the reader’s mind then… So I wouldn’t say it is a ‘quick read’ despite the fact it’s barely over 100 pages long. Each to their own though, perhaps you can still appreciate its skill and read it in one sitting!
It is a story as old as time in many ways. One comparison that definitely comes to my educated in a Polish high school mind is “The Doll” (“Lalka”) by Bolesław Prus. The Johannes of that story is somewhat more well-off (having earned quite a fortune in trade abroad) but his very own Victoria is just as afraid to lose by marrying beneath station (she was, by all means, much worse a character than Victoria though). It seems like 19th century society, be that in Norway or Poland or I guess even in Dickens’ novels, was just as strict everywhere and to break away required immense means and willpower.
Admittedly, I wasn’t quite as taken with the story Knut Hamsun penned as I was enchanted by his penmanship skills alone. I do blame my high school education and plethora of obligatory reads that would exhaust that particular trope to shreds. I’m just way too familiarized with how it all worked back then and thus it doesn’t excite me much anymore.
That is not to say I didn’t enjoy this book. I believe that its true phenomenon lies in the author’s skill to write beautifully, lyrically, breathtakingly. It definitely felt like that to me as it was the passages of (inner and outer) monologues that read the fastest, with the most ease. Dialogue parts often appeared to be forced and unnatural, perhaps to mirror the characters’ inability to properly express their feelings and showcase the awkwardness of it all, of that, however, if it was done with intent, I cannot be certain.
I read it in the span of a few days, or… evenings is probably best to call it. A part of me wanted to prolong my reading it, to cherish the words for a little bit longer because they were beautiful even if the characters themselves weren’t my “kind” of people, even if their undecidedness annoyed me a great deal. I was torn while I was reading it, yeah, between enjoying the book for all the technical reasons and disliking it for whom it portrayed. (I seem to have this problem with a lot of classics… that I don’t often connect with the characters and my reading of said novel mostly consists of deep appreciation of how well it was written. Can’t have it all, can we? Haha.)
I’d recommend this to fans of classic literature, and those who wish to discover something new (I hadn’t even heard a beep of this novel until my mum found it in my late grandfather’s apartment but I don’t know, maybe I just missed the buzz somehow) but at the same time old (published in 1898!). I don’t think it is to be read quickly. The poetry of it might escape the reader’s mind then… So I wouldn’t say it is a ‘quick read’ despite the fact it’s barely over 100 pages long. Each to their own though, perhaps you can still appreciate its skill and read it in one sitting!
challenging
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was okay. An interesting perspective of class barriers and its effect on true love. However, the psychological and philosophical aspect of it threw me off and sometmes got lost in the text.