SOURCE: "The Great Hunger," in The Dial, Chicago, Vol. 66, March 22, 1919, pp. 299-300.

In the following essay, Lovett discusses the epic qualities of The Great Hunger.

The epic motive of man in warfare with nature is the first theme of The Great Hunger, by Johan Bojer, translated from the Norwegian by W. J. Alexander Worster and C. Archer. Peer Troen, the hero, bursts upon us in a typical adventure. The boys were forbidden to touch the big deep-sea line because "the thing about a deep-sea line is that it may bring to the surface fish so big and so fearsome that the like has never been seen before." But as all the men of the village are off at the Lofoten fishery, Peer and his friends have carried the line across the fjord and baited the hooks. Now they are hauling in the catch: on the first hook a...