On Overgrown Paths

On Overgrown Paths Synopsis

'Midsummer's Day 1948: Today the Supreme Court has made its judgement, and I end my writing' On Overgrown Paths, the last work of the Nobel Prize winner Knut Hamsun, was published in 1949. It is an epilogue in all senses, an exemplary instance of 'late work' as well as of life-writing. Composed at a critical juncture in European history and in Hamsun's life and career, it documents an irreversible fall from grace.

The book is a powerfully written, deeply engaging work of self-narrative by a great European author who threw in his lot with the Nazi regime. It thus raises questions of literary self-presentation and historical veracity, as well as the perennial question of how one reads works by an ethically compromised writer. The distinctly hybrid and fragmented text On Overgrown Paths is a kind of diary of the period from May 1945, when Hamsun was placed under house arrest, until June 1948, when the Norwegian Supreme Court pronounced its final judgement.

It includes an account of his activities and impressions during the period of his internments, documents of self-defence, and many anecdotal reminiscences, notably from his time in northern Norway in his childhood and youth and in America in the 1880s. On Overgrown Paths is also a subtle and moving depiction of old age. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe.

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