Sigurd Hoel

Hoel, Sigurd 

Born Dec. 14, 1890, in Nord-Odal; died Oct. 19, 1960, in Oslo. Norwegian writer.

Hoel studied the natural sciences at the University of Oslo. He took part in the resistance movement, and from 1943 to 1945 he lived in Sweden. His first published work appeared in 1918.

Hoel was a master of the sociopsychological novel. His novel The Sinners in Summertime (1927) was devoted to problems of young people. The novels One Day in October (1931; Russian translation, 1934) and Open Sesame (1938) attacked bourgeois morality. The novel Meeting at the Milestone (1947; Russian translation under the title My Guilt, 1966) develops the themes of treason, guilt, and sudden tragic insight. Hoel’s novel At the Foot of the Tower of Babel (1956; Russian translation, 1968), which is devoted to the fate of antifascists, offers a critical interpretation of postwar Norwegian life and is pervaded by pessimism. In the historical novel The Trolls’ Ring (1958), Hoel dealt with the theme of man’s responsibility to society.

REFERENCES

Stai, A. Sigurd Hoel. Oslo, 1955.
De Mylius, J. E. Sigurd Hoel—befrieren i fugleham. Odersee, 1972.

E. L. PANKRATOVA