Look Back on Happiness

by Knut Hamsun

"Look Back on Happiness" by Knut Hamsun is a novel published in 1912. The third book in Hamsun's "wanderer trilogy," it follows an aging narrator who retreats to a cabin in the woods, seeking solitude and peace in nature. Yet his attempt to distance himself from human connection unravels when he meets the charming Solem and Miss Thorsen. Unable to acknowledge his true feelings, the narrator deceives himself about what he truly wants, leading to inevitable misfortune in this meditation on aging and self-delusion.