Part 1, pages 1-19 Summary

In Hunger, the protagonist is a writer living in Christiania in the 1800s. Out of work, he struggles to write articles for the local newspapers to make a little money to feed himself. He ends up with no money for rent, and resorts to selling off his meager possessions to the pawn broker one at a time, until he has nothing left. After experiencing manic highs and bleak depressions, he finally takes a job on a ship sailing away from Norway, to England, and says goodbye to his native land.

As the novel begins, the unnamed first-person narrator is living in an attic room in Christiania. He looks out his window hungrily at advertisements for food during the early morning hours. Most of his possessions have already gone to his "uncle," the pawnbroker. His room is poorly made and...