Viktorija

Generally recognized as one of Knut Hamsun's greatest works, Victoria was originally published in 1898. The novel is a seemingly simple, touching idyll of young love. But its simplicity is deceptive, for the story is imbued with a passionate lyricism and that brooding melancholy that pervades much of Hamsun's writing. The star-crossed young lovers are Johannes, the miller's son, and Victoria, the daughter of the lord of the manor. Their moment of ecstasy is as brief and transitory as their desire, and they prove perversely cruel to each other.

Born in 1859 in Norway, Knut Hamsun was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920.