4 h 53 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 4 h 53 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In a forest where summer light scarcely fades, a man seeks freedom and finds a love he cannot master.
Thomas Glahn lives in a hut in northern Norway, hunting, fishing, and walking with his dog, Aesop. The forest asks nothing of him. Then he meets Edvarda Mack, the merchant's lively, changeable daughter. She draws him close and pushes him away, unsettling a man who wants both solitude and her love.
In Knut Hamsun's Pan, woods, sea, and weather feel as alive as the people. Glahn recalls his summer in a voice that charms but leaves gaps. Eva, the blacksmith's wife, offers another kind of warmth, while life around Mack's trading post brings social demands. Moods and sudden impulses shape a love story that refuses a straight path.
What you’ll discover
- A forest that breathes Enter a world of woods, sea, and lingering light that shapes Glahn's shifting moods.
- Love without steady ground Follow Glahn and Edvarda through an attraction pulled between longing, pride, and the wish for freedom.
- A voice worth questioning Listen closely to a charming, difficult narrator whose confession leaves room for doubt.
- Warmth beyond the forest Meet Eva, whose bond with Glahn offers a simpler warmth than his troubled attachment to Edvarda.
- Wildness meets social life Explore the clash between a hunter's solitude and a world that expects him to fit.
Who will love it
For readers who love short, moody books about nature and love that goes wrong, and who enjoy an unreliable narrator.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A hunter chooses the forest over town
- Meeting Edvarda at the trading post
- Eva, the doctor, and a crowded summer
- A party, a rival, and a growing pride
- What the book says about love and freedom
- How the novel is told and why it feels so alive
Who’s who
- Thomas GlahnA lieutenant who lives alone in a forest hut, hunts for his food, and wants both freedom and the love of Edvarda.
- Edvarda MackThe merchant's young daughter, lively and changeable, who draws Glahn close and pushes him away in turn.
- AesopGlahn's hunting dog and constant companion, whose bond with his master reflects the hunter's moods.
- MackThe merchant who owns the trading post at Sirilund and whose house is the center of local social life.
- EvaThe blacksmith's young wife, who is drawn to Glahn and offers him a simpler warmth than Edvarda does.
- The DoctorA sharp-tongued local man who watches the district with dry humor and talks often with Glahn.
- The BaronA polished visitor at Mack's house whose arrival stirs Glahn's jealousy and pride.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 4 h 53 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Pan
by Knut Hamsun · 1894
In a hut in northern Norway, Glahn seeks freedom, but his love for Edvarda stirs jealousy and pride.
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In short
Pan is a short novel by the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, published in 1894. It is told by Thomas Glahn, a lieutenant who has left society to live alone in a hut at the edge of the forest in northern Norway.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A hunter chooses the forest over town
The story opens with Glahn in his hut in Nordland, a region of northern Norway. His only companion is his dog, Aesop, and his days are made of hunting, fishing, and long walks. He says he is happy. The forest, the sea, and the endless northern summer light fill him with a joy he finds hard to put into words.
He describes small things with great care. He lies by a fire at night and listens to the birds, he watches the sky turn color over the water, and he feels that the trees and stones are somehow aware of him. Hamsun gives the reader this nature as a kind of company, not as a backdrop.
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What is Pan by Knut Hamsun about?
It is about Lieutenant Thomas Glahn, who lives alone in a hut in northern Norway and falls for a merchant's daughter, Edvarda. Their proud, shifting relationship plays out against vivid scenes of forest, sea, and long summer light.
Why is the novel called Pan?
Pan is the Greek god of wild places, music, and sudden desire or fear. The title points to the untamed energy in Glahn and in the landscape, and to the way nature and passion seem tied together in the book.
When was Pan written and is it a true story?
Hamsun published Pan in 1894. It is a work of fiction, though Hamsun drew on his own love of the northern Norwegian landscape and on the moods and impulses he wanted to capture in fiction.
The author
Knut Hamsun
1859–1952 · Norwegian novelist
Knut Hamsun (1859–1952) was a Norwegian novelist. He lived in Norway and spent periods in the United States during the 1880s. He published Hunger in 1890, Pan in 1894, and Growth of the Soil in 1917. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920.
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