by Knut Hamsun

Published in Norway in 1912, The Last Joy (Den Siste Glaede) appears at an important transition point in Hamsun's career, as he moved away from his intense observations of individual characters to focus on a broader canvas of small town and farm life social units of the Norwegian culture. The Last Joy lies somewhere between, with all the comic eccentricity of Hamsun's great individualistic portraits and the small-town pretensions and social inter-relationships of his later works.