Nobel Prize-winning author Hamsun is at his best in this early novel. As a reviewer of the Sun & Moon edition noted: "Rosa, first appearing in 1909, is noteworthy as a transition between the two periods [of Hamsun"s career]. The protagonist and first-person narrator, Parelius, is another of Hamsun"s lonely, insecure artists. Yet Parelius focuses so much on the other characters rather than himself that he almost becomes a participant observer. . . . The tasteless village capitalist is equal to those of Sinclair Lewis: Hartvigson makes his consumption conspicuous by wearing a diving suit to church. . . . The sea captain, to get even with his wife, runs across a shoal and takes her down with the ship."-Darryl Hattenhauer, Review of Contemporary Fiction.