''On Overgrown Paths'' is the English title of the final novel by
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
author and nobel laureate
Knut Hamsun
Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective a ...
. Hamsun's attempt to prove his soundness of mind after his sanity was called into question.
[Fredrik Wandrup (9 July 2008]
Den gåtefulle dikteren
''Dagbladet
''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...
'', retrieved 4 August 2013 Written at the age of 90, as his last literary work,
[ the short novel is part a fiction pamphlet, part ]diary
A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal ...
, part old man's apologia
An apologia (Latin for apology, from Greek ἀπολογία, "speaking in defense") is a formal defense of an opinion, position or action. The term's current use, often in the context of religion, theology and philosophy, derives from Justin Mar ...
and part protest at the court ruling in his 1948 trial, that determined he had "permanently impaired mental abilities".
::"St. John's Day, 1948 - Today, the Supreme Court has given its verdict and I end my writing."
- So ends Knut Hamsun's last book and last literary sentence.
Written while in police custody after WWII for his outspoken National Socialist
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
sympathies and support of the Quisling
''Quisling'' (, ) is a term used in Scandinavian languages and in English meaning a citizen or politician of an occupied country who collaborates with an enemy occupying force – or more generally as a synonym for '' traitor''. The word or ...
government during the German occupation of Norway, 1940-45.
Highly controversial in its day, the narrative structure is of small separate events without obvious links, but differs from his fiction writing only in its claim to be historically and autobiographically true. Later critics point out that fiction-reality boundaries elide in several of his books and 'OOP' presents some fictional elements as reality.
Voted Best Norwegian Non-Fiction Book published after 1945 in the Culture and Entertainment category in the NRK program ''Faktasjekken'', by Members of the Norwegian Professional Literary Authors and Translators Association.
The original Norwegian title was ''Paa gjengrodde Stier''.
English editions
*Translated by Carl L. Anderson published by Paul S. Eriksson Inc., N.Y. (1967); MacGibbon & Kee, London & Aylesbury (1968).
*Translated by Sverre Lyngstad published by Green Integer, Series No.22 (1999); .
Other languages
The novel has been published in German, Italian, Spanish, Icelandic, Hungarian, Serbian (translated by Mirko Rumac; Beograd: LOM, 2011), Bosnian, French, Estonian
Filmatization
The writing of this book is shown, in part, in the film ''Hamsun'' (1996), directed by Jan Troell
Jan Gustaf Troell (born 23 July 1931) is a Swedish writer-director, and cinematographer. His realistic films, with a lyrical photography in which nature is prominent, have placed him in the first rank of modern Swedish film directors along with I ...
. In the film, Hamsun is portrayed by Swedish actor Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...
.
References
{{Knut Hamsun
1949 novels
Novels by Knut Hamsun