Hunger

novel by Hamsun
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Also known as: “Sult”

Hunger, novel by Knut Hamsun, published in 1890 as Sult. It is the semiautobiographical chronicle of the physical and psychological hunger experienced by an aspiring writer in late 19th-century Norway. The unnamed narrator of this plotless episodic work is an introspective young man whose hunger to succeed as a writer matches his intense physical hunger. He lacks human contact and at times seems demented. Although he has occasional hunger-induced hallucinations, he neither feels sorry for himself nor tries to rectify his situation. The book’s impulsive, lyrical style marked a clear departure from the then-prevalent social realism and had an electrifying ...(100 of 104 words)