Memories of a Nation by Neil MacGregor 'What are the sounds of Germany? Most people's list would probably include, in ascending volume, and growing numbers, a Bach cantata, a Beethoven symphony, a Wagner opera and - loudest of all - the roar of the crowds as Germany wins the World Cup .... But just as …
Category: German literature
Death in Venice
by Thomas Mann A Review 'Cases of recovery were rare; eighty out of a hundred of those infected died, and in a horrid way, for the disease struck with savagery and often presented itself as the most severe "dry form".' Usually regarded by scholars and critics as a novella, Death in Venice has the characteristics …
Book Review: Measuring the World
by Daniel Kehlmann (Die Vermesserung der Welt) This novel is a double biography of two of the giants of science, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Alexander von Humboldt, fast-paced and told with irreverent humour. 'It was both odd and unjust, said Gauss .... that you were born into a particular time and held prisoner there whether …
Another Tale of Love and Death
Continuing the German theme of a day or two ago, I decided to feature another work that I like - literally a tale of love and death, or to give it its proper title, The Song of the Love and Death of Standard Bearer Christoph Rilke - Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets …
A Tale of Love and Death
Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué November is German Literature Month apparently - see the hosting site : https://beautyisasleepingcat.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/announcing-german-literature-month-v/ so I thought I might read (re-read as it happens) one of my favourite classical German works. Despite the rather French-sounding name, Fouqué was German and wrote his 1810/11 novella in that language. English readers …
The End of an Age
Hotel Savoy by Joseph Roth A Review It is 1919 or 1920. World War I has only recently ended. After three years in a prisoner-of-war camp in Siberia, Gabriel Dan makes his way to the West across Russia, taking casual work as he goes. However, he needs money and breaks his journey in an Eastern …
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