Victoria (Hamsun)
Victoria. The story of a love is a story by Knut Hamsun from 1898. It is about the relationship between the miller's son Johannes and Victoria, the daughter of a landowner. The big differences in class are among other things the reason that the relationship comes to a tragic end.
action
Although the story is titled "Victoria", it is presented by an omniscient narrator , but from the perspective of the miller's son. This can already be seen in the first two paragraphs of the story:
“The miller's son went around brooding. He was a sturdy boy of fourteen, tanned from the sun and the wind, and full of all kinds of thoughts. When he grew up he wanted to be a matchmaker. That was so wonderfully dangerous, then nobody would dare shake hands because they might have sulfur on their fingers. And for the sake of this uncanny craft, he would enjoy a great reputation among his comrades. "
Here it is already clear that Johannes is painfully aware of his social position and dreams of a position in life that would give him prestige and power, something from which he seems to be inaccessible. He meets Victoria, who is four years younger, when she goes outside the "castle" - as the manor is commonly called. Then they are freed from the constraints that dictate their origin. He's meeting her now too. Here he is only assigned as a servant to row her, her brother and his comrade Otto to the nearby island. Victoria, who would probably like to speak to Johannes, hardly ever comes because the two boys prevent it and keep her away from him, to whom they show all too clearly that he is only her assistant and by no means her companion. Johannes fights against it. He would like to roam the island with them, which he knows so well, and show them all the beautiful places and peculiarities that he has explored. But he has to stay behind, lonely and sad. However, he and Victoria meet afterwards and more or less openly admit their love.
Johannes is now sent to the unspecified city by his father and is studying hard and successfully there. He returns home when he is around twenty. Victoria does not recognize him at first. He still loves her and is saddened that she sucks him. Soon after, he is to row Victoria's brother back to the island. But this does not appear. Instead, Johannes witnessed an accident: a girl fell off a ship. With presence of mind he jumps after her and saves her. The people on the ship cheer him up, and the girl's parents ask for his name so that they can express their thanks later. Victoria wants to be with him again soon afterwards, but she is aware that that shouldn't be, and so she plays the repellent and at the same time reveals her feelings for him again.
Johannes travels back to the city, where he studies and finally tries his hand at being a poet, whose works are even printed and are successful. Now he meets Victoria again, who has apparently visited him, even if she does not want to admit it. But since he sees through her, he becomes more courageous and openly confesses his love to her. She shows him that she always wears one of his poems on her breast. But she also wears an engagement ring on her finger. You won't be able to get together. He accompanies her a little, and then she also confesses her love to him:
“I love you, she said. Do you understand? You are the one i love Suddenly she hastily pulled him back down the stairs, three or four steps, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. She trembled towards him. "
When he tries to see her again, she makes it clear that there is too much that separates them. At the same time, however, she asks him to visit her in the country. Then again she sends him a letter asking him to forget about her. Johannes remains unhappy in the city. Nevertheless, he managed to complete a new book. Through his success as a writer and through his connection with the Seiers, Camilla's parents, the girl he rescued years ago, he has in some ways experienced a social rise. To get other thoughts, Johannes travels abroad.
Months go by. One evening there was a knock on the miller's door. It is Victoria who, by providing an excuse for her visit, wants to inquire about Johannes. Soon afterwards Johannes announced his arrival to his parents. Since his wife persuades him to do so, the miller goes to the manor house and brings this news to Victoria. However, she has now caught herself again and pretends to be hardly interested in her.
When Johannes returns, they meet each other more or less by chance while going for a walk. They haven't seen each other for two years and are quite formal with each other. Finally Victoria invites Johannes to come to the Herrenhof for dinner, where there is a party. She promises him a pleasant surprise. But he hesitates until she confirms the invitation in writing.
Johannes tries reasonably to mimic the pleasantly entertained guest at the company. Victoria admits that she has no surprise for him and that she just wanted to persuade him to come. However, there is then an exchange between them. When her fiancé, Otto, her brother Dietlef's old schoolmate, comes in, Johannes hurts Victoria by remarking that Otto not only looks dashing in his officer's uniform, but is also a good match financially. This offends her so much that she answers with an open affront. She changes the table arrangement in front of everyone. Now he is no longer allowed to sit next to her and Camilla, who is also present, but is banished to the former head of house at the lower end of the board. He has to endure the old man's talk. But he makes a good face to the bad game. Finally the mood lifts again when a young guest praises him, the young poet. However, Victoria is so confused that she causes a stir when she disturbs his reply. Nevertheless, Johannes manages to somehow meaningfully complete it. After dinner they talk. It is reported that the lord of the castle has high debts and that the castle is very highly insured. John is extremely excited and confused. He wants to go home when he hears Victoria and her fiancé talking. She has to justify herself for her behavior at the table and asserts that it meant nothing. Victoria's fiancé is still upset and agrees to meet a neighbor to go snipe hunting. Then he hits Johannes, in whom he has identified his rival, in the face. However, this remains calm.
After the evening Johannes asks Camilla for her hand, although at the same time he gives her to understand that he does not love her. But she is too naive to notice. No sooner has he successfully proposed to Camilla than Victoria approaches and reports that her fiancé was killed in a hunting accident. Hours later she comes to John's home and apologizes for her behavior. She tells him that her father urged her to connect with Otto in order to use the money from this marriage to prevent the family from ruining. She reassures him of her love. But he confesses to her that he is now engaged.
After the failed attempt to marry his daughter off, Victoria's father sets fire to the lock and burns it. Camilla confesses to Johannes that she loves someone else. He then releases it.
He meets Camilla, her mother, and her fiancé in the street and they exchange courtesies. Then he sees Victoria's old head of house pacing up and down in front of his apartment. He first tells him that he, the die-hard bachelor, has got married after all and is happy. Then he changes the subject and talks about his former student, who is doing badly, no, who is actually dying since she took over dancing at an evening party at the Seiers'. He traces their behavior back to his theory that in life you can never get who you love most. She has lost her fiancé and cannot get over it. At the end of the conversation he comes out with the truth: Victoria has already died and he is supposed to bring Johannes one last letter from her.
Johannes reads her letter in which she reassures him of her love and confesses how she had to pretend to be in front of him in order not to reveal her true feelings. The narrative ends with this final greeting to her lover.
Criticism to Victoria
Stephan Michael Schröder, Professor of Scandinavian Studies in Cologne, rated the story as positive in 1996, admitting that it was "a trivial, suspiciously melodramatic material, as found in thousands of books". Hamsun had exposed himself to the “pitfalls of kitsch ” in Victoria , but “without a single stumble”. He goes on to say that it is not so much the difference in class that Victoria " ends as a tragedy " but the "inability to communicate". This, in turn, can be traced back to “breaking social patterns of orientation” which are the hallmarks of modernity, in which “a fixed, simple identity” is an illusion. Such is however indispensable in order to “fight for the love of another”.
In 1952, however, the magazine Der Spiegel contained the following derogatory statement: “How pleasantly Hamsun's books wounded at the time [at the time of their publication]! How much they struck the reader in the heart: 'Pan' [...] or 'Victoria', this romance-like, slightly flimsy blonde 'story of a love' ... "
expenditure
The Norwegian original edition was published by Cammermeyer in Kristiania, now Oslo , in 1898 . The first German translation was published shortly afterwards, in 1899, by Verlag Langen (Paris, Leipzig, Munich) and was by Mathilde Mann . The translation by Julius Sandmeier from 1923 was reprinted many times in the following decades and, revised by Sophie Angermann , is also available in current editions. In 1995 a translation by Alken Bruns was published by List-Verlag as part of a Hamsun work edition . The story has been translated into numerous other languages.
Film adaptations
The story served several times as a template for various film productions. The first film adaptation was made in 1917 as a Russian silent film. Others followed, including a. turned Carl Hoffmann its version of 1935 . Bo Widerberg directed Victoria in 1979 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Knut Hamsun: Victoria. Story of a love. Paul List Verlag, Munich 1958. p. 5
- ↑ Knut Hamsun: Victoria. Story of a love. Paul List Verlag, Munich 1958. p. 42
- ↑ a b Stephan Michael Schröder: Knut Hamsun: Flowers and blood. Review of "Victoria. A love story" . Humboldt University of Berlin. 1996. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
- ↑ anonymous: Hamsun: We old people are durable . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1952, pp. 29 ( online - February 27, 1952 ).