Growth of the Soil is a novel written by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, which was first published in 1917. The book tells the story of Isak, a Norwegian peasant who settles in rural northern Norway and works to cultivate a farm and raise a family. The novel explores themes of human relationships with nature, the struggle for survival in a harsh environment, and the tension between tradition and progress.The novel is considered a classic of Norwegian...

One of the most important and controversial writers of the 20th century, Knut Hamsun made literary history with the publication in 1890 of this powerful, autobiographical novel recounting the abject poverty, hunger and despair of a young writer struggling to achieve self-discovery and its ultimate artistic expression. The book brilliantly probes the psychodynamics of alienation, obsession, and self-destruction, painting an unforgettable portrait of a man driven by forces beyond his control...

Between Hunger and Growth of the Soil lies the time generally allotted to a generation, but at first glance the two books seem much farther apart. One expresses the passionate revolt of a homeless wanderer against the conventional routine of modern life. The other celebrates a root-fast existence bounded in every direction by monotonous chores. The issuance of two such books from the same pen suggests to the superficial view a complete reversal of position

The Wanderer consists of two closely related novels, Under the Autumn Star and On Muted Strings, has been acclaimed as one of Hamsun's greatest works. The narrator, Knut Pedersen (Hamsun's real name), is a complicated character in search of the simple life, which he hopes to attain by wandering around the Norwegian countryside doing such work as he can find. His quest is continually frustrated, not least by his susceptibility to the wives and daughters of successive employers. In Under the...

Growth of the Soil (Norwegian Markens Grøde), is a novel by Knut Hamsun which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. It follows the story of a man who settles and lives in rural Norway. First published in 1917, it has since been translated from Norwegian into languages such as English. The novel was written in the popular style of Norwegian new realism, a movement dominating the early 20th century. The novel exemplified Hamsun's aversion to modernity and inclination towards primiti...

This is the story of Isak, a worker of the land, with its roots in man's deepest myths about the struggle to cultivate the land and make it fertile. Sweeping and panoramic, the story moves at the pace of the passing seasons and with the growth of the crops on which the characters' lives depend.Hamsun's themes of individual freedom, and the fundamental human need to reconcile man with the natural world, speak even more resonantly than when the novel was first published.

Knud Pedersen was born in Lom in the Gudbrandsdal valley of Norway on the 4th of August, 1859 in what was then the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway. He was the fourth son of seven children born to poor parents who, when he was three, were invited to an uncle’s farm to work his land.When he was nine he moved away from his family to help another uncle who ran a post office. Whilst with him he was beaten and starved which manifested in a series of chronic nervous difficulties. The...

Hunger is a novel by the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun published in 1890. Parts of it had been published anonymously in the Danish magazine Ny Jord in 1888. The novel has been hailed as the literary opening of the 20th century and an outstanding example of modern, psychology-driven literature. Hunger portrays the irrationality of the human mind in an intriguing and sometimes humorous manner.

Aan essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. In it, Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)

The Diary of a Young Girl started two days before Anne Frank's thirteenth birthday. In 1942, the Nazis had occupied Holland, and her family left their home to go into hiding, as they were Jews. Anne Frank recorded daily events, her personal experiences and her feelings in her diary for the next two years. Cut off from the outside world, she and her family faced hunger, boredom, claustrophobia at living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and deat...

A Christmas TreeWhat Christmas is as we Grow OlderThe Poor Relation's StoryThe Child's StoryThe Schoolboy's StoryNobody's Story