The Honditsch Cross

Ingeborg Bachmann

ISBN 10: 0811238563 / ISBN 13: 9780811238564

Published by New Directions Publishing Corporation, US, 2025

About this Item

Written when Ingeborg Bachmann was only eighteen, The Honditsch Cross, her second-longest completed work of prose, is a historical novella set during the final days of the Napoleonic occupation of Austria in 1813.A young theology student, returning from Vienna to his family home in Carinthia, finds the invading troops stationed there, led by a despotic officer, who has been exploiting and terrorizing his family and friends. He is immediately thrown into the center of the conflict, torn between defending his homeland, the pull of physical desire, and the pursuit of his theological studies.In this gripping work, Bachmann begins to explore themes that will pre-occupy her for the rest of her writing career: complex notions of nationality and patriotism, the roles and rights of women in patriarchal societies, the meaningless destruction of war and its aftermath, and the bitter moments of disillusionment that lead to intellectual maturity.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780811238564

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Honditsch Cross
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation, US
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811238563
• ISBN 13: 9780811238564
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 13.97W x 0.76H x 21.59D centimeters 13.97 centimeters width by 0.76 centimeters height by 21.59 centimeters depth
• Weight: 125 grams

About this title

Synopsis

A powerful historical work about war and its victims, never before in English, from the celebrated author of Malina

Written when Ingeborg Bachmann was only eighteen, The Honditsch Cross, her second-longest completed work of prose, is a historical novella set during the final days of the Napoleonic occupation of Austria in 1813.

A young theology student, returning from Vienna to his family home in Carinthia, finds the invading troops stationed there, led by a despotic officer, who has been exploiting and terrorizing his family and friends. He is immediately thrown into the center of the conflict, torn between defending his homeland, the pull of physical desire, and the pursuit of his theological studies...

In this gripping work, Bachmann begins to explore themes that will pre-occupy her for the rest of her writing career: complex notions of nationality and patriotism, the roles and rights of women in patriarchal societies, the meaningless destruction of war and its aftermath, and the bitter moments of disillusionment that lead to intellectual maturity

About the Authors

Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973) is widely regarded as one of the greatest German-language writers of the twentieth century. Her poems, plays, stories, and her only finished novel, Malina, have been championed by Paul Celan, Hannah Arendt, Günter Grass, Peter Handke, Thomas Bernhard, Christa Wolf, and Elfriede Jelinek.

Tess Lewis is a writer and translator from French and German.