Mysteries (novel)

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Mysterien (Norwegian: Mysterier ) is a novel by Knut Hamsun from 1892. The first German translation was published in 1894 by the Albert Langen publishing house, which was founded especially for this purpose .

content

The novel depicts the arrival of a strange stranger in a small Norwegian port city in an alternation of authorial narration and the personal narrative technique of the stream of consciousness . This eccentric with an enigmatic past, Johan Nilsen Nagel, wears bright yellow suits and sends himself telegrams to legitimize his completely unmotivated stay as an alleged agronomist and to make it appear important. He buys people's supposedly valuable furniture for excessive sums. Nagel speaks passionately about literature and philosophical topics and is a charming entertainer. He disregards all the rules of small town life, which culminates in a charismatic violin playing at a festival, which is virtuoso but crooked at the same time and yet attracts everyone's attention. In his inner contradiction he is a "foreigner of existence", as he calls himself.

He only falls in love with the beautiful pastor's daughter Dagny Kielland, who disconcertingly rejects him. After this experience, he spontaneously approaches the no longer young woman Martha Gude, who, however, also disdains him after initial sympathies. At the same time he familiarizes himself with Minute, an old and mocked man, and tells him that he intends to solve a murder that happened shortly before his arrival. A mysterious woman finally drives him to commit suicide in the sea after a first suicide attempt could be foiled within a minute. Life in the sleepy coastal town can resume its usual course.

Characters

  • Johan Nilsen Nagel (Simonsen): main character, allegedly an agronomist
  • Miss Dagny Kielland: daughter of the pastor, fiancee of a navy lieutenant
  • Miss Martha Gude: poor, older maid
  • Minute (Johannes Grögaard): Coal discharge
  • Kamma: a Dane, presumably a former acquaintance of Nagels
  • Sara: the maid
  • Agent Reinert: junior legal officer
  • Doctor Sternersen: practicing doctor
  • Mrs. Stenersen
  • the young student Öien
  • Hansen attorney
  • the adjunct
  • Miss Andresen
  • the host of the hotel

Varia

In Editor Lynge , the novel that Hamsun published after Mysteries , the character Dagny Hansen, b. Kielland up again. Johan Nilsen Nagel, his connection to Dagny Kielland and his suicide, which ends the mystery , is also discussed. In addition, the student Öien and Miss Martha Gude are mentioned in editor Lynge . Öien is a writer there, who was discovered by editor Lynge, Martha Gude lives (" like a sister, a comrade" ) with Dagny Hansen.

The character of the writer Öien is in turn one of the protagonists of the novel New Earth , which appeared after editor Lynge .

interpretation

The very title of the novel suggests that the real motivations behind the plot are hidden. Its interpretation is therefore also diverse. There is agreement that Hamsun gave the figure of Nagel a high degree of traits of his own personality, which was also confirmed by Hamsun's son Tore. According to this interpretation, the mysteries are ultimately those of one's own psyche, which the author deals with. The feeling of alienation in his environment, which was difficult to escape, he himself had experienced in Oslo and America, among other places.

In addition, Hamsun brought in the novel his views on the works of his predecessors Ibsen , Hugo , Tolstoy and Maupassant , whom he accused of unrealistic representations of the psyche, while he used Dostoevsky and his novel Guilt and Atonement as a model. In a speech, Nagel also proves to be a supporter of Nietzsche's idea of ​​the master man .

expenditure

literature

  • Tore Hamsun: Mein Vater , Munich 1993, pp. 153–161
  • Hölterhoff, Kirsten / Detering, Heinrich: Knut Hamsun - "Mysterier" , Kindlers Literatur Lexikon, 3rd edition. Ed. Heinz Ludwig Arnold, Stuttgart, Weimar 2009

Reviews

filming

In 1978 there was a film adaptation directed by Paul de Lussanet , who also wrote the script. Rutger Hauer could be seen in the role of Johan Nagel, Sylvia Kristel , David Rappaport and Rita Tushingham also played .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Knut Hamsun: Editor Lynge . Ed .:. S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin.
  2. ↑ Knut Hamsun: New Earth . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-462-01830-2 .
  3. ↑ Willi Winkler: Foreigners of Dasein runs amok. In: Die Zeit , November 4, 1994. Retrieved January 5, 2014.
  4. ↑ Roger Willemsen: "Mysteries by Knut Hamsun is my favorite book." In: ZDF Read! , September 14, 2004. Retrieved January 5, 2014.
  5. ↑ current news press portal: Roger Willemsen as guest in Read! on ZDF. September 10, 2004. Retrieved January 5, 2014.
  6. ^ Matthias Hannemann: A novel full of confusion. In: Deutschlandradio Kultur , February 7, 2010. Accessed January 5, 2014.
  7. ^ Mysteries (1978). Retrieved August 30, 2017 .