Melancholy I & II
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From Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize for Literature, comes an aching exploration of life, death, time, memory, and the artistic temperament.
Initially published separately and brought together here in a single volume, Melancholy I & II are essential entries in the oeuvre of one of the world’s most celebrated living writers. Fosse explores the life and work of Lars Hertervig (1830–1902), a troubled painter of dreamlike landscapes who was diagnosed with “melancholy” but is now widely regarded as a major Norwegian artist.
Melancholy I focuses on Hertervig's time as a student—a period he spent tortured by doubtsabout his artistic abilities and torn between his studies, his art, and his unrequited love, culminating in a mental breakdown. Melancholy II, marking an important shift in Fosse’s trademark stream-of-consciousness style, is narrated by Hertervig’s sister, slipping in time through memories of her brother on the day of her own death.
Jon Fosse
Jon Fosse is the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2023. Jon Fosse's work includes novels, poetry, essays and books for children. He is one of the most produced playwrights in Europe and his plays have been translated into more than forty languages. Methuen Drama publishes Plays One (Someone Is Going to Come, The Name, The Guitar Man, The Child), Plays Three (Mother and Child, Sleep my Baby Sleep, Afternoon, Beautiful, Death Variations), Plays Four (And We'll Never Be Parted, The Son, Visits, Meanwhile the Lights Go Down and Everything Becomes Black), Plays Five (Suzannah, Living Secretly, The Dead Dogs, A Red Butterfly's Wing, Warm, Telemakos, Sleep), Nightsongs, The Girl on the Sofa and I Am The Wind. Fosse was made a Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite of France in 2007 and received The International Ibsen Award in 2010.
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Grethe Kvernes
Translated by
Grethe Kvernes is a native of Samnanger, Western Norway, one county over from where Fosse grew up. She studied translation with William Weaver at Bard College, and currently lives with her family in upstate New York.
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