The novels “Benoni” and “Rose” reflect the author’s firm conviction, formed just at this moment, of the need for modern man to return to patriarchal forms of life relationships. In the dilogy, Hamsun again meets with the characters of his early works, with the merchant Ferdinand Mak, already familiar to readers from the novel “Pan”. He is a typical representative of the good old days, when in the villages and towns of Norway large merchants, matadors, reigned without limit and had power even greater than representatives of the state. Hamsun portrays this intelligent and cynical man with gentle irony, but also with respect, but feels that his time is already passing. The main character of the first part of the dilogy is Benoni Hartvigsen, a successful and good-natured fisherman, a simple man from the people who does not have any special merits. He was simply lucky enough to drive a huge school of herring into his net, which is where his rise began. His success is a matter of chance, and in essence he is completely powerless in front of Mak, who controls everything in the fishing village of Sirilund. Life in this novel by Hamsun seems to be frozen in the picture he painted of ideal, as it seems to him, old times, but this is precisely the meaning “Benoni”: after all, such a people’s life is an alternative to the meaningless existence of his former heroes. Budur Natalia - “Gamsun. The Mystery of Life"