The Visionary

"The Visionary; or, Pictures from Nordland" (Den Fremsynte) was first published in English translation in 1894. A contemporary of both Ibsen and Bjornson, Lie first aspired to a seafaring life, but his eyesight made such a career impossible. He turned then to poetry and journalism, finally producing in 1870 this first novel, "a tragedy in which resistless Fate hurries its victims to destruction. The hero, David Holst, is one of those unhappy beings who seem doomed to a more than ordinary share of the ills of life. He has inherited from his mother at least a tendency to insanity, and he lives in fear of being involved in a terrible catastrophe, from which he only saves himself by strong efforts of will and by the recollection of the lost love of his youth . . ."