STRUGGLING LIFE

"In the outlying areas there are many islands and there is a small one called Blåmandsø, it has barely a hundred people. But the neighboring island is much larger, there are probably three or four hundred people, and there is a church and authorities. It is called Kirkeøen. Since my childhood, there has also been a post office and telegraph on Kirkeøen. ("On Blåmandsø")"

1905

Struggling Life (1905) is Hamsun's third and final collection of short prose. It consists of seven texts of varying length.

Two of the plays, "The Days of the Vagabond" and "Under the Crescent Moon", are longer stories, divided into chapters and with the action set in America and the Orient, respectively.

"Out in the Sweet Summer" has the subtitle "a little novel". In this story, the action is set in a sanatorium where deception and role reversal are part of the plot. The text points to the novels The Last Joy and The Last Chapter (1923), where the action is also set in a sanatorium.

In both "On Blåmandsø", "Alexander and Leonarda" and "Among Animals", the action is set in Nordland.