4, note 5.) In a letter to Bolette and Ole Johan Larsen of March 7, 1892, Hamsun says, “... one shouldn’t write for people, one should ... settle down in a forest, acquire a house, a wife, and a dog.” (Knut Hamsuns brev, ed. Harald S. Næss, I [Oslo, 1994]: 247. Hereafter cited as Brev. The translations are my own unless otherwise indicated.) Nevertheless, Hamsun refused to be identified with Nagel, as shown in a letter to Erik Skram of November 5,1892, where he says he cannot be responsible for “all of Nagel’s opinions” (Brev, 284; Knut Hamsun, Selected Letters, ed. Harald Næss & James McFarlane, I [Norwich, England: Norvik Press, 1990]: 163-64. Hereafter referred to as Letters.)

2 Tore Hamsun, Knut Hamsun—min far (Oslo, 1992), 64.

3 Letter to Svend Tveraas of February 29, 1884, in Brev, 42; Letters, 42.

4 Harald Næss, Knut Hamsun (Boston, 1984), 12.

5 Letter to Nikolai Frøsland of January 19, 1886, in Brev, 63.

6 Letter to Erik Frydenlund of September 4, 1886, in Brev, 69; Letters, 58.

7 Letter to the Larsens in November 1894, in Brev, 431; Letters, 214.

8 “Psykologisk literatur,” in Paa Turné: Tre foredrag om litteratur, ed. Tore Hamsun (Oslo, 1960), 51.

9 Ibid., 66.

10 Ibid., 70-71.

11 “Fra det ubevidste Sjæleliv,” in Knut Hamsun, Artikler, ed. Francis Bull (Oslo, 1939), 60. In his article “ ‘Et dyb af mimoser, hvori vinden puster’: Om hvordan Knut Hamsun oppdaget Nathalie Sarrautes tropismer en natt i Lillesand,” Vinduet 46 (1992), nos. ¾, 97-101, Pal Norheim claims to find striking similarities between what Hamsun means by the mimosa metaphor in describing his aesthetic program and the meaning of tropisms in Nathalie Sarraute’s literary work.

12 “Fra det ubevidste Sjæleliv,” 61.

13 See “The Unconscious in the Aesthetic Judgment and in Artistic Production,” in Eduard von Hartmann, Philosophy of the Unconscious, trans. W. C. Coupland, with a Preface by C. K. Ogden (London & New York, 1931), I: 276ff.

14 Gregory Nybø, Knut Hamsuns ‘Mysterier’ (Oslo, 1969).

15 “Den moderne norske literatur” (1896), in Norsk skrivekunst, ed. Erling Nielsen (Oslo, 1958), 17, and “Knut Hamsun,” in Skildringer og stemninger fra den yngre litteratur (Kristiania, 1897), 28.

16 See “Sidste kapitel og det første: Hamsuns og Kincks sidste bøker,” in Norsk national kunst (Copenhagen, 1924), 147; Hamsun som modernist (Copenhagen, 1975), 197; and as quoted by Arne Falck, “Storm mot Mysterier,” in Ni artikler om Knut Hamsun, ed. Arild Hamsun (Arendal, 1976), 74, from Faldbakken’s article in Dagbladet, August 6, 1973.

17 See Henry Miller, The Books in My Life (London, 1952), 40, and Updike’s review of Gerry Bothmer’s translation of Mysteries in the New York Times Book Review, August 22, 1971, 1, 30.

18 Reinhard H. Friederich, “Kafka and Hamsun’s Mysteries,” Comparative Literature 28, no. 1 (Winter 1976): 34.

19 Nico Rost, “Aantekeningen bij het lezen van Knut Hamsun,” De nieuwe Gids 37 (1922): 40.

20 See “Heart of Darkness,” in The Portable Conrad, ed. Morton Dauwen Zabel (New York, 1952), 561.

21 Janko Lavrin, “The Return of Pan (On Knut Hamsun),” in Aspects of Modernism (Freeport, New York, 1968), 95.

22 Matthew 6:4.

23 Myshkin even hopes that his jealous rival, the fiery Rogozhin, will eventually become Nastasya Filippovna’s “providence.” See Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v tridtsati tomakh, VIII (Leningrad, 1973): 192; The Idiot, trans. Constance Garnett (New York, 1935), 218.

24 Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v tridtsati tomakh, XIV (Leningrad, 1976): 214-15, 223, 239; The Brothers Karamazov, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (New York, 1991), 235-36, 245, 263.

25 Hamsun’s use of clairvoyance in Mysteries recalls The Visionary (1870) by Jonas Lie, who also grew up in Northern Norway, known for its uncanny tales of the supernatural.

26 Gregory Nybø’s study of Mysteries analyzes the work in terms of psychological detective fiction. His assertion that such a critical approach helps to bring out the organizing structures of the story (Knut Hamsuns ‘Mysterier,’ 16) is no doubt valid. However, the strategies of detective fiction do not by themselves unify the work. Nagel’s self-appointed exercise as a detective, in an apparent attempt to clear up the puzzling circumstances surrounding Karlsen’s death, shows up only sporadically and is abandoned well before the end of the novel.

27 The close kinship between the two heroes is suggested by several shared motifs: Nagel’s description of himself as a “stranger on earth” seems to echo Werther’s self-definition as a “wanderer, a pilgrim on earth”; Werther, like Nagel, fantasizes about meeting his beloved in the beyond; he is also associated with the color yellow, wearing a yellow vest (The Sufferings of Young Werther, trans. Harry Steinhauer [New York, 1970], 57, 90, 96). For further discussion, see Frank Thiess, “Das Werther-Thema in Hamsuns Mysterien,” in Heimat und Weltgeist: Jabrbuch der Knut Hamsun-Gesellschaft, ed. Hilde Fürstenberg (1960), 133-52.