20th
21st
A01=Thomas Bernhard
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
austria
Author_Thomas Bernhard
automatic-update
B06=James Reidel
Category1=Fiction
Category=FA
Category=FB
centuries
century
collected
collection
comical
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
discussion
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
europe
european
flames
friendship
funny
home
homeland
humor
Language_English
literary
literature
montaigne
PA=Available
philosopher
philosophical
philosophy
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
reading
relationships
reunion
satire
satirical
SN=German List
softlaunch
stories
tractatus logico philosophicus
travelogue
wittgenstein
Product details
- ISBN 9780857427052
- Dimensions: 127 x 203mm
- Publication Date: 15 Sep 2019
- Publisher: Seagull Books London Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
This collection of four stories by the writer George Steiner called “one of the masters of European fiction” is, as longtime fans of Thomas Bernhard would expect, bleakly comic and inspiringly rancorous. The subject of his stories vary: in one, Goethe summons Wittgenstein to discuss the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus; “Montaigne: A Story (in 22 Installments)” tells of a young man sealing himself in a tower to read; “Reunion,” meanwhile, satirizes that very impulse to escape; and the final story rounds out the collection by making Bernhard himself a victim, persecuted by his greatest enemy—his very homeland of Austria. Underpinning all these variously comic, tragic, and bitingly satirical excursions is Bernhard’s abiding interest in, and deep knowledge of, the philosophy of doubt.
Bernhard’s work can seem off-putting on first acquaintance, as he suffers no fools and offers no hand to assist the unwary reader. But those who make the effort to engage with Bernhard on his own uncompromising terms will discover a writer with powerful comic gifts, penetrating insight into the failings and delusions of modern life, and an unstinting desire to tell the whole, unvarnished, unwelcome truth. Start here, readers; the rewards are great.
Thomas Bernhard (1931-89) grew up in Salzburg and Vienna, where he studied music. In 1957 he began a second career as a playwright, poet, and novelist. He went on to win many of the most prestigious literary prizes of Europe (including the Austrian State Prize, the Bremen and Br chner prizes, and Le Prix S guier), became one of the most widely admired writers of his generation, and insisted at his death that none of his works be published in Austria for seventy years, a provision later repealed by his half-brother. James Reidel is a poet, biographer, and translator who has also translated the works by Thomas Bernhard, Georg Trakl, and Franz Werfel, among others.
