Segelfoss Town

Segelfoss #2

by Knut Hamsun, J.S. Scott (Translation)

New edition of J.S. Scott's 1925 English translation of Segelfoss Town (original title: Segelfoss By) by Knut Hamsun, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920.

Segelfoss Town was first published in Norway in 1915 and is an independent continuation of Hamsun's Children of the Age, published two years earlier. The novel is a criticism of modern times, depicting the fall of the landed gentry and the rise of the working class. Segelfoss Town and its predecessor were the first of Hamsun's novels devoted to social issues. The two novels are described by Monika Zagar in Knut Hamsun: The Dark Side of Literary Brilliance (2009) as "much more than dry social analysis; indeed, they investigate, in rich novelistic form, the propagation and survival of a family."

Genres: Fiction

406 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1915

About the author

Novels of Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun (born Knud Pedersen), include Hunger (1890) and The Growth of the Soil (1917). He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1920.

He insisted on the intricacies of the human mind as the main object of modern literature to describe the "whisper of the blood, and the pleading of the bone marrow." Hamsun pursued his literary program, debuting in 1890 with the psychological novel Hunger.

Reviews

[Rudi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeg visste ikke at dette er bok to i en trilogi, men jeg kan ikke forstå annet enn at den skal være ment til å kunne stå på egne ben. Det er riktignok antydninger til tidligere hendelser i Segelfoss, men de er ikke nødvendigvis dekka i den første boka.

I Segelfoss by latterliggjør Hamsun overklassen, underklassen og arbeiderklassen i møte med moderne kapitalisme i en by i Nordland. Underklassen blir nyttige idioter, arbeiderklassen er bortskjemte og uhøfflige, de nyrike er uansvarlige og skruppelløse og overklassen er passive og tafatte. Telegrafisten kommer kanskje best utav det, kanskje mest fordi han er bevisst sin/samfunnets stagnasjon. Det at alle disse delvis karikerte karakterene likevel er nyanserte og interessante skyldes Hamsun sitt fortellertalent, og gjør at boka fremdeles er fornøyelig, til tross for Hamsuns negativitet. Han klarer også mesterlig å gå fra person til person i den lille byen uten at det går på bekostning av flyten eller sammenhengen. Vi møter en bredt karaktergalleri som sammen er som et bilde av hele den lille byen.

Markens Grøde, hans neste bok, er kritisk til mye av det samme som blir satirisert i denne, men i den får han også tydeligere frem hva han er positiv til. Segelfoss by er (stort sett) ikke en dyster bok, men jeg savner flere sekvenser hvor Hamsun senker skuldrene.

[شاهنشاه‎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

As in "Children of the Age" (the predecessor of this novel) followed the decline of the landed gentry and the rise of the industrial class, "Segelfoss Town" follows the fall of the industrial class and the rise of the worker/consumer class. This book follows most of the same characters from "Children of the Age" but spends a far more equal amount of time on them. Consequently, it is very important to have read "Children of the Age" before beginning this book.

This book is much more enigmatic than "Children of the Age" and the plot meanders far and wide, at times extremely slow and at times somewhat too fast. The ending is nowhere near as cut and dry as that of "Children of the Age;" "Segelfoss By" is much, much more symbolic in many ways.

Both "Children of the Age" and "Segelfoss By" serve as critiques of industrialization, modernity, and, especially, consumerism and banal thirst for money among the working class.

If "Growth of the Soil"(published two years after this novel) is a book about a man bringing order to nature and building a life on the land, these two books explore the decline of his descendants.

[Ivan Monckton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have had a good bout of re-reading books discovered in my youth, and was looking through my mountains of books looking for another Knut Hamsun, when, much to my astonishment and delight, I found Segelfoss Town, a novel I had no recollection of ever acquiring, and which I have certainly never read!
What a treat! 364 pages of gossip and banter about a very small Northern Norwegian town, with little apart from every day life going on, but which holds you engrossed to the last page. In the unlikely event that you can lay your hands on a copy, I highly recommend it. But then, I would say that about all of his books, despite his somewhat murky later politics. Perhaps it’s time for me to read the Hamsun biography, and get the full story...

[Nenad Pavlović · Rating 4 out of 5]

Times change, people follow - plain, wicked, noble and extraordinary alike.

[Terje · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5/5.0]

Lydbok, Gyldendal 2009, lest av Nils Johnson, Operasjon Hjernerystelse.

En god fortsettelse av historien om den voksende byen Segelfoss, med store doser samfunnskritikk.

Selv om det er historien og karakterene som står i fokus også i bok to i denne miniserien, blir flyten oftere brutt av flere og mer direkte utgreiinger om alt forfatteren mener er galt med det moderne samfunnet. Flere personer fungerer mest som karikerte bilder av f.eks. britisk (Wilatz) og fransk (Anton) kultur og væremåte, den dumme og late arbeiderklassen som står på krava (Konrad, Aslak & co), eller den voksende embedsmannsklassen som bare har boklig lærdom og som ikke kan noe praktisk (prest Lassen, doktor Muus, sakfører Rasch, m.fl.)

Fortellerstilen er nokså lik den i Børn av tiden, selv om Segelfoss by har mer dialogbasert humor enn den første boka.

Men roter ikke Knut litt med ett og annet her? Hr. Didriksens forlovede kalles Ruth i kapittel I, og Rakel i kapittel VIII? Jeg blir også litt forvirra når jeg sammenlikner slutten av denne boka med begynnelsen av Men livet lever: i sistnevnte heter det at Marianne fikk en jomfrupost i Tromsø, mens det er ikke nevnt at hun skulle gifte seg med Wilatz, som avslutter Segelfoss by. I følge Men livet lever solgte Wilatz seg ut av barndomshjemmet før Segelfoss blei en by, men det stemmer ikke med beskrivelsene i Segelfoss by. Kanskje Knut glømte å lese denne boka før han skreiv siste bok i August-trilogien?

Innleser er Nils Johnson. Han gjør som vanlig en svært god jobb. Han gir personene gjenkjennbare stemmer, liv og karakter, og bruken av dialekter er ypperlig.

[James Varney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hamsun is profound and, today, an unappreciated giant. There is something immense about his novels. His art belongs with Faulkner's, Conrad's, Tolstoy's - at the pinnacle of literature. "Segelfoss Town" is sort of a bird's eye view of a town like the one that develops below Isak's farm in "Growth of the Soil." Segelfoss is a port in north Norway, Hamsun's favorite geography, and the novel follows several characters in it over the course of several years. Hamsun effortlessly draws more than a dozen people, men and women, and takes us to the core of their thinking. All the petty, heartbreaking, euphoric, infuriating moments of life (with the exception of birth; no one has a baby in Segelfoss that Hamsun chooses to write about) are captured here. And the action, such as it is, unfolds in a kind of geographic dream - a town nestled against the cold, impersonal ocean and surrounded by the mountains and deep forest, that provide a magnificent, brooding, silent but gorgeous backdrop. Hamsun has blistering criticism of the theater and the press; contempt for slackers he sees on every side. He is ruthless. But he is also kind, funny, his characters filled with the qualities that make unforgettable heroes and villains. I do think "Segelfoss Town" is maybe a notch below "Mysteries," and "Pan," and "Victoria." And "Hunger," although that is a different sort of Hamsun, if only because it takes place in Oslo instead of the countryside. But Hamsun a notch below another Hamsun is still miles above almost everything else - indeed, there are only a handful of writers I put in this class.

[Petro · Rating 4 out of 5]

така скандинавська книжка...