Prose (Paperback)

Thomas Bernhard

ISBN 10: 0857425765 / ISBN 13: 9780857425768

Published by Seagull Books London Ltd, Greenford, 2018

About this Item

Paperback. His manner of speaking, like that of all the subordinated, excluded, was awkward, like a body full of wounds, into which at any time anyone can strew salt, yet so insistent, that it is painful to listen to him, from The CarpenterThe Austrian playwright, novelist, and poet Thomas Bernhard (193189) is acknowledged as among the major writers of our time. The seven stories in this collection capture Bernhards distinct darkly comic voice and visionoften compared to Kafka and Musilcommenting on a corrupted world. First published in German in 1967, these stories were written at the same time as Bernhards early novels Frost, Gargoyles, and The Lime Works, and they display the same obsessions, restlessness, and disarming mastery of language. Martin Chalmers outstanding translation, which renders the work in English for the first time, captures the essential personality of the work. The narrators of these stories lack the strength to do anything but listen and then write, the reader in turn becoming a captive listener, deciphering the traps laid by memoryand the mere words, the neverending words with which we try to pin it down. Words that are always close to driving the narrator crazy, but yet, as Bernhard writes not completely crazy. Bernhard's glorious talent for bleak existential monologues is second only to Beckett's, and seems to have sprung up fully mature in his mesmerizing debut.From Publishers Weekly, on Frost The feeling grows that Thomas Bernhard is the most original, concentrated novelist writing in German. His connections . . . with the great constellation of Kafka, Musil, and Broch become ever clearer. George Steiner, Times Literary Supplement, on Gargoyles Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780857425768

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Prose (Paperback)
• Publisher: Seagull Books London Ltd, Greenford
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0857425765
• ISBN 13: 9780857425768
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

“His manner of speaking, like that of all the subordinated, excluded, was awkward, like a body full of wounds, into which at any time anyone can strew salt, yet so insistent, that it is painful to listen to him,” from The Carpenter

The Austrian playwright, novelist, and poet Thomas Bernhard (1931–89) is acknowledged as among the major writers of our time. The seven stories in this collection capture Bernhard’s distinct darkly comic voice and vision—often compared to Kafka and Musil—commenting on a corrupted world.

            First published in German in 1967, these stories were written at the same time as Bernhard’s early novels Frost, Gargoyles, and The Lime Works, and they display the same obsessions, restlessness, and disarming mastery of language. Martin Chalmer’s outstanding translation, which renders the work in English for the first time, captures the essential personality of the work. The narrators of these stories lack the strength to do anything but listen and then write, the reader in turn becoming a captive listener, deciphering the traps laid by memory—and the mere words, the neverending words with which we try to pin it down. Words that are always close to driving the narrator crazy, but yet, as Bernhard writes “not completely crazy.”

 “Bernhard's glorious talent for bleak existential monologues is second only to Beckett's, and seems to have sprung up fully mature in his mesmerizing debut.”—From Publishers Weekly, on Frost

 “The feeling grows that Thomas Bernhard is the most original, concentrated novelist writing in German. His connections . . . with the great constellation of Kafka, Musil, and Broch become ever clearer.” —George Steiner, Times Literary Supplement, on Gargoyles

About the Author

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 Büchner prizes, and Le Prix Séguier.