Mysteries (novel)

After the scandalous fame of the first novel “ Hunger ”, which brought the writer, Gamsun began the life of a professional writer. He was burdened with debts, the fee for a novel of 210 crowns was quickly squandered, the first edition of 2000 copies sold out slowly. Since working on a new book first of all required appropriate conditions and the ability to focus on the text, Gamsun leaves for the Norwegian town of Lillesand (the name literally means “Little Sandy Beach”), beautiful and tidy, which he, however, soon disliked and dubbed “Phillesand ”(“ Dirty Beach ”). It was necessary to work on the novel in difficult conditions, as his musician was his neighbor on the number continuously. Soon Mary Dunn, a young Englishwoman who decided to translate Hunger, arrived in Lillesand ^[1] .

In Lillesand, Gamsun worked on a storybook, but the author was not satisfied with the result, and he decided to start writing a novel, the future Mysteries. In parallel, he creates an article “On the unconscious spiritual life”, which literary scholars consider to be “programmatic” and “a kind of commentary” on “Hunger”. Continuing to work on the novel, in 1890-1891, Hamsun made a triumphal lecture tour in Norway . To complete the work on the novel, he arrived in Sarpsborg during the summer months of 1891 . At this time, Gamsun was in love and poor, he experienced two love failures, the echoes of which are visible in the Mysteries.

In the fall of 1891, Gamsun returned to Christiania , where he gave his famous lectures on Norwegian literature , which were attended by Edward Grieg , Fridtjof Nansen and Henrik Ibsen . In these lectures, the young writer sharply criticized the classics of realistic literature (Nagel spoke with similar speeches to Leo Tolstoy in the Mysteries).

The Mysteries came out in Copenhagen in the fall of 1892 .

The small Norwegian coastal town, whose name remains unknown, is alarmed by the appearance of an eccentric stranger who has settled indefinitely in a local hotel and introduced himself as Johan Nielsen Nagel. His luggage, including a violin case, his yellow suit and he himself become the subject of lively interest of local residents. Nagel does not provide accurate information about himself, spreads rumors about himself. An intrigued society, bored in its wilderness, closely follows him and tries to lure him into his ranks. Nagel, for his part, is interested in some representatives of this society. The objects of his main interest are the local beauty Freken Hjellan, on the day of the announcement of the engagement which Nagel arrived in the city, the local holy fool for a Minute, and the unfortunate woman Martha Gode.

Nagel falls in love with Dagny Hyellan and pursues her. On the first day of his stay in the town, he learns about the local priest Carlsen, who fell in love with her and supposedly committed suicide by killing himself in a forest. Dagny’s attitude towards Nagel is gradually changing, but she cannot and does not want to break off her engagement. Nagel’s attitude towards the Minute, secretly in love with Dagny, at first looking like compassion, is becoming more and more complex. Nagel's visions and forebodings make him suspect of a mysterious and dark person, Carlsen’s killer, and Freken Gude, the perpetrator of misfortunes. Attitude towards the last Nagel, which also at first looks like compassion and a desire to help financially, is undergoing development. When Dagny finally refuses him, Nagel begins to ask Martha to marry him, she agrees, but Dagny convinces her to leave the city. All these events take place against the background of uninteresting provincial social life.

Constantly developing, the experiences and reflections of Nagel cause mental and physical illness in him. In the end, he commits suicide by throwing himself into the sea. In the last scene of the novel, a year after Nagel’s death, walking in the woods as two best friends Martha and Dagny recall Nagel and discuss how he was right about the Minute.

The Mysteries had a great influence on 20th century modernist literature. According to Anna Akhmatova , in her youth, she "read a lot and constantly: a great deal ... of influence ... was made by the then lord of thoughts Knut Gamsun (" Mysteries and Secrets ")" ^[2] . Various scholars have analyzed the relationship of the novel with the works of Franz Kafka (especially with “The Castle ” and “Description of One Struggle”) and Daniil Kharms , who took the quote from the novel as an epigraph for his story “The Old Woman ”. A fan of the novel was also Henry Miller , who said in his novel The Colossus of Marussia: “There are few books in the world that I can constantly return to, and one of them is Gamsun's Mysteries, the other is The Eternal Husband of Dostoevsky . ... it's closer to me than any other book that I read ... When reading this book, I always feel as if I am reading a different version of my life. "

Based on the novel in 1978, the Dutch film of the same name was shot with Rutger Hauer in the role of Nagel and Sylvia Christel in the role of Dagny Hyellan.

• Budur N. Gamsun. Mystery of Life , 2008, ISBN 5-235-03078-8 , ISBN 978-5-235-03078-7
• Reinhard H. Friederich . Kafka and Hamsun's Mysteries, Comparative Literature, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Winter, 1976), pp. 34-50.
• Susan D. Scotto . Xarms and Hamsun: “Staruxa” Solves a Mystery ?, Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Winter, 1986), pp. 282-296