The things we do!

It is as psychological documents of the
utmost importance to the understanding of Hamsun himself that they have
their chief significance. As a by-product, one might almost say, the
reader gets the art which reveals the story of the Falkenbergs by a
process of indirect approach equalled in its ingenuity and
verisimilitude only by Conrad's best efforts.
The line of Hamsun's artistic evolution is easily traceable through
certain stages which, however, are not separated by sharp breaks. It is
impossible to say that one stage ended and the next one began in a
certain year. Instead they overlap like tiles on a roof. Their
respective characters are strikingly symbolized by the titles of the
dramatic trilogy which Hamsun produced between 1895 and 1898--"At the
Gate of the Kingdom," "The Game of Life," and "Sunset Glow."
"Hunger" opened the first period and "Pan" marked its climax, but it
came to an end only with the eight-act drama of "Vendt the Monk" in
1902, and traces of it are to be found in everything that Hamsun ever
wrote.


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