Slaves of Love by Knut Hamsun. Short summary

5 seconds

A female caterer fell in love with a cafe customer and gave him all her money. The man was unrequitedly in love with a circus rider and went after her circus. From the newspapers, the tunesmith learned that he was dead.

1 minute

The narrator is an ex-celliner. Every night a young man came to her cafe. One day he came in with a rider from the circus. The girl overheard them arguing.

After a couple of days, the man gave the girl a card and asked her to take it to the rider. The girl saw that his name was Vladimir T***. The conversation between Vladimir and the rider didn’t work out and beer was poured into his coat pocket. The girl helped wipe his coat.

Vladimir gave the girl a bouquet. She thanked him, and he said he bought them for someone else. Another day later he asked her for a hundred crowns.

The next day he said he couldn’t get the money back. He broke up with the rider and asked the girl for another five crowns.

For several days in a row, Vladimir said he couldn’t get the money back. He said that the horsewoman had left. The girl gave him more money, and Vladimir said he would go away for a week, but would come back and give the money back.

A week later, Vladimir sent a note. He had gone to get the rider and would not be able to return the money. The girl was fired. She learned from the newspaper that Vladimir had died.