--- product_id: 226844723 title: "Growth Of The Soil" price: "$U888" currency: UYU in_stock: true reviews_count: 8 url: https://www.desertcart.uy/products/226844723-growth-of-the-soil store_origin: UY region: Uruguay --- # Growth Of The Soil **Price:** $U888 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Growth Of The Soil - **How much does it cost?** $U888 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.uy](https://www.desertcart.uy/products/226844723-growth-of-the-soil) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description desertcart.com: Growth Of The Soil: 9781440414220: Hamsun, Knut: Books Review: The Once Universal Way of Life - It’s hard to understand different types of human consciousness. If it was easy we’d all be experts in Hegel. But it’s undeniable that consciousness has changed as society has become more literate and technological and governments have become more free. While it’s possible to access some of the earliest civilizations’ kinds of consciousness—one need only, for example, read the Hebrew Bible—Growth of the Soil is at its finest when it portrays what life was like for a farmer and his wife settling untilled land in the far northern part of Norway during the late nineteenth century. Knut Hamsun actually thought that the solution to the problems of the twentieth century was a return to this way of life but that lack of foresight doesn’t diminish from the power of the novel. As it progresses, the nineteenth century catches up with the farmer and one sees the contrast between modern urban life and the more staid ways of the country. To put its themes into words would, unfortunately, be to engage in a number of cliches. But I can guarantee that any reader will come away with a new appreciation for what the first settlers were like—their manners, customs and ways of thinking. I don’t mean to suggest this is an exercise in cultural anthropology. With a slow but steady pace, mirroring the growth of the tilled land, Hamsun introduces a panoply of characters from the Lutheran villages nearby as well as fellow farmers in the Arctic Circle’s wilderness. And these characters have adventures and dilemmas ranging from the tragic to the comical. You couldn’t really even describe a way of life without the necessary drama of human living. But it’s perennial interests comes, not from a great sense of the landscape—which actually is barely described, not from the story arcs and plot twists—though there are many, but from the insight into the manner in which almost all human beings used to live and which turned out to be on the point of almost vanishing (at least in Europe). Because of this unique perspective, I would argue that Growth of the Soil is almost a must read to fellow explorers of the human condition. Review: Hamsun weaves a compelling story of how man and nature should coexist and how we've been led astray - This book is an amazing testament to the way things used (ought..?) to be. In this mythical world Hamsun has created a lone man comes to wild land with a PURPOSE. His purpose is to cultivate and build and inhabit and 'grow' the land into something human, something sculpted, something meaningful. Some people still live this purposeful existence, or try to, in places very remote (there are few left), such as Northern and Western Alaska and Siberia. It's a hard life but also a wonderful one. Few people get to experience it in our modern world. Can you imagine leaving the comforts of your city, suburban, or even semi-country life, and moving out into the middle of the wilderness on your own, constructing your own dwelling, growing crops, and raising livestock? Not for the feint of heart. No one wants to do this kind of thing anymore and it's sad. This is a very powerful way to stay connected to the land and the inhabitants of the land. Hamsun does a wonderful job of illustrating this way of life and it's encroachment by more and more humans as time goes on. Most of the people in the novel don't get corrupted by the influence of the encroaching civilization except one of the main character's sons who goes very astray in a sad (and at times depressing) strain of the story...but he represents all (or many/maybe most) of us. Hamsun is a crafty and thoughtful storyteller. I've also read his book 'Hunger' which is extraordinary and worth reading. Don't be put off by his Nazi sympathies. An artists prejudices and other personality traits/quirks or what have you, should not be confused in most cases with the art they create. You can dislike Hamsun the person and love his work. And you should love his work it's some of the best written material around. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #1,200,894 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #7,796 in Psychological Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 650 Reviews | ## Images ![Growth Of The Soil - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Z8aMwZyuL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Once Universal Way of Life *by A***S on July 26, 2023* It’s hard to understand different types of human consciousness. If it was easy we’d all be experts in Hegel. But it’s undeniable that consciousness has changed as society has become more literate and technological and governments have become more free. While it’s possible to access some of the earliest civilizations’ kinds of consciousness—one need only, for example, read the Hebrew Bible—Growth of the Soil is at its finest when it portrays what life was like for a farmer and his wife settling untilled land in the far northern part of Norway during the late nineteenth century. Knut Hamsun actually thought that the solution to the problems of the twentieth century was a return to this way of life but that lack of foresight doesn’t diminish from the power of the novel. As it progresses, the nineteenth century catches up with the farmer and one sees the contrast between modern urban life and the more staid ways of the country. To put its themes into words would, unfortunately, be to engage in a number of cliches. But I can guarantee that any reader will come away with a new appreciation for what the first settlers were like—their manners, customs and ways of thinking. I don’t mean to suggest this is an exercise in cultural anthropology. With a slow but steady pace, mirroring the growth of the tilled land, Hamsun introduces a panoply of characters from the Lutheran villages nearby as well as fellow farmers in the Arctic Circle’s wilderness. And these characters have adventures and dilemmas ranging from the tragic to the comical. You couldn’t really even describe a way of life without the necessary drama of human living. But it’s perennial interests comes, not from a great sense of the landscape—which actually is barely described, not from the story arcs and plot twists—though there are many, but from the insight into the manner in which almost all human beings used to live and which turned out to be on the point of almost vanishing (at least in Europe). Because of this unique perspective, I would argue that Growth of the Soil is almost a must read to fellow explorers of the human condition. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hamsun weaves a compelling story of how man and nature should coexist and how we've been led astray *by S***. on August 17, 2015* This book is an amazing testament to the way things used (ought..?) to be. In this mythical world Hamsun has created a lone man comes to wild land with a PURPOSE. His purpose is to cultivate and build and inhabit and 'grow' the land into something human, something sculpted, something meaningful. Some people still live this purposeful existence, or try to, in places very remote (there are few left), such as Northern and Western Alaska and Siberia. It's a hard life but also a wonderful one. Few people get to experience it in our modern world. Can you imagine leaving the comforts of your city, suburban, or even semi-country life, and moving out into the middle of the wilderness on your own, constructing your own dwelling, growing crops, and raising livestock? Not for the feint of heart. No one wants to do this kind of thing anymore and it's sad. This is a very powerful way to stay connected to the land and the inhabitants of the land. Hamsun does a wonderful job of illustrating this way of life and it's encroachment by more and more humans as time goes on. Most of the people in the novel don't get corrupted by the influence of the encroaching civilization except one of the main character's sons who goes very astray in a sad (and at times depressing) strain of the story...but he represents all (or many/maybe most) of us. Hamsun is a crafty and thoughtful storyteller. I've also read his book 'Hunger' which is extraordinary and worth reading. Don't be put off by his Nazi sympathies. An artists prejudices and other personality traits/quirks or what have you, should not be confused in most cases with the art they create. You can dislike Hamsun the person and love his work. And you should love his work it's some of the best written material around. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ marvelous in some parts, soporific in others *by J***S on February 14, 2021* Growth of the soil Knut Hamsun (Pedersen) The translator gives us a lovely paean to the story: “The story is epic in its magnitude, in its calm, steady progress and unhurrying rhythm, in its vast and intimate humanity. The author looks upon his characters with a great, all-tolerant” eye. And the translator is right about the unhurrying rhythm – it’s a 200-page story told in 350 pages. The story line, the writing style, the characters are stolid: slow-moving but substantial in their depth. In fact, the slow, rhythmic movement of the prose is part of the attractiveness of the writing—the unchanging world of agriculture and of Isak himself: “Look! the tiny grains that are to take life and grow, shoot up into ears, and give more corn again; so it is throughout all the earth where corn is sown. Palestine, America, the valleys of Norway itself—a great wide world, and here is Isak, a tiny speck in the midst of it all, a sower. Little showers of corn flung out fanwise from his hand; a kindly clouded sky, with a promise of the faintest little misty rain.” Part of the slowness is that Hamsun is writing from the point of view of a narrator who rarely sees into his characters. The most conversation we get out of Isak is the occasional “Ha.” As a Minnesotan, I understand this, since we have a lot of Norwegians in our population. We look to the Germans in the southern half of the state for humor and laissez-faire insouciance. Usually, stories have some sort of character arc that animate their plots and draw the reader along. This one has an interesting twist, which I guess one might call the environment arc. The farm, to some degree the people involved with it change and grow, but Isak is a rock-solid constant, “A tiller of the ground, body and soul; a worker on the land without respite. A ghost risen out of the past to point the future, a man from the earliest days of cultivation, a settler in the wilds, nine hundred years old, and, withal, a man of the day.” That is lovely writing, but it also makes for a great deal of repetition and not much movement. Stolid. It was interesting to read, marvelous in some parts, soporific in others. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.uy/products/226844723-growth-of-the-soil](https://www.desertcart.uy/products/226844723-growth-of-the-soil) --- *Product available on Desertcart Uruguay* *Store origin: UY* *Last updated: 2026-04-23*