This beautiful and moving story of young love is a classic of European literature. Johannes, the miller's son, and Victoria, daughter of the lord of the manor, enjoy a brief moment of ecstasy that is as transitory as their dreams. They are forever separated by their class, and circumstances force them into perverse cruelty to each other. Yet, Victoria cannot live without her Johannes.
Victoria is the only novel Hamsun wrote that could be described as a whole-hearted love story and was written at the beginning of his own marriage (indeed Hamsun named his own daughter, Victoria, after the novel).
