- ホーム
- > 洋書
- > 英文書
- > Literary Criticism
Full Description
These translations of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's fiction introduce the writer to a new generation of readers.
The Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-90) was one of the most important literary figures of the second half of the twentieth century. During the years of the cold war, arguably only Beckett, Camus, Sartre, and Brecht rivaled him as a presence in European letters. Yet outside Europe, this prolific author is primarily known for only one work, The Visit.
This second volume of Selected Writings reveals a writer who may stand as Kafka's greatest heir. Dürrenmatt's novellas and short stories are searing, tragicomic explorations of the ironies of justice and the corruptibility of institutions. The most well-known work included here is The Pledge, a requiem to the detective story that was made into a film starring Jack Nicholson. The evocative novellas The Assignment tells the story of a woman filmmaker investigating a mysterious murder in an unnamed Arab country; it has been hailed by Sven Birkerts as "a parable of hell for an age consumed by images." The novella Traps, meanwhile, is a chilling comic novella about a traveling salesman who agrees to play the role of the defendant in a mock trial among dinner companions—and then pays the ultimate penalty.
Dürrenmatt has long been considered a great writer, but one unfairly neglected in the modern world of letters. With these elegantly conceived and expertly translated volumes, a new generation of readers will rediscover his greatest works.
Contents
Introduction by Theodore Ziolkowski
The Sausage The Old Man The Theater Director The Dog The Tunnel The Pledge - Requiem for the Detective Novel Greek Man Seeks Greek Wife - A Prose Comedy Traps - A Still Possible Story The Coup Smithy The Dying of the Pythia The Minotaur - A Ballad The Assignment; or, On the Observing of the Observer of the Observers - A Novella in Twenty-four Sentences
