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123 reviews for:

Victoria

Knut Hamsun

3.59 AVERAGE

slow-paced
emotional lighthearted relaxing slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I appreciate this book.
Knut Hamsun is a big part of our literary history here in Norway and throughout the years in school we analyze his work, and watch the movie based on this book. Even so, I never get tired of it. It’s sweet and terrible all at the same time. I can’t get a hundred percent on board with the writing in certain parts, so that’s why it gets four stars from me.
I do wonder what it’s like in English compared to Norwegian, though?

Helt ok.
adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

beautiful beautiful beautiful I should not have been listening to Mystery of Love while reading the final letter..... ah ha ah h haghhhhhhhhhhhhh is it better to speak or to die 
dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
bibiran's profile picture

bibiran's review

3.5
dark lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

knut hamsun tryna CATCH ! THIS !! FADE !!!

ok but in all seriousness, i was actually enjoying the book like i started and finished it in a few hours, it was pretty easy to follow. some warning signs should have gone off in my head about the ending when i saw that this was a Norwegian classic though lol. 

the writing style was pretty straightforward, but there were moments when it sort of took a detour into these beautiful long poetic rants about love and life that i came to really enjoy. now what i did NOT enjoy was the narrative structure, i could follow it well enough until a little less than or around 2/3s into the book, then it takes to borderline soap-opera tactics to keep them apart until... you know.. the ending, which was very sudden and unsatisfying by the way.

i also thought the age gap between johannes and victoria was a bit.. strange when they were younger. it's a gap of 4 years which doesn't really matter later in life but at the ages of which he was first infatuated with her (her 10 and him 14) it was a little bit strange? so i had my reservations about that, but they managed to make me root for them as the story went on, they completely lost me after the point of the book i mentioned, after a certain HUGE turn happens during an engagement celebration hunt.. yeah. 


and lastly for a book called "Victoria" they didn't focus on her side of the story enough for the ending to land as emotionally for me as it should have, in my opinion. feel like it would have been cooler if she hadn't declared her love to him at all and then after the final event in the book the whole rest of the book is the story told from her point of view, not to knock something that's over 100 years old but THAT would've gotten me writhing and screaming, just saying.


but recap, top positive was the beautiful random poetic philosophy detours, would enjoy a whole book like that from him if there is one.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
hopeful reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced