Full Description
These newly translated stories chart the making of a literary provocateur, one experiment and ethical dilemma at a time.
Before Thomas Bernhard became one of the most provocative voices in modern literature, he was a young writer testing the limits of form and subject. Of Seven Fir Trees and the Snow offers an unprecedented look at his evolution, from his earliest published work at nineteen to the emergence of his unmistakable voice. Translated into English for the first time, in these stories, Bernhard moves from stark naturalism to fairy-tale simplicity to the eerie, stripped-down surrealism reminiscent of science fiction. At the same time, he grapples with the fundamental ethical questions that would define his career: how does one navigate personal autonomy in a world fractured by the upheavals of the twentieth century?
Selected and arranged in chronological order by Douglas Robertson, this collection traces Bernhard's transformation from an ambitious chronicler of Austrian rural life to a writer in dialogue with the broader currents of world literature. A rare glimpse into the making of a literary icon, this volume is essential reading for both longtime admirers and those discovering Bernhard's singular genius for the first time.
Contents
Translator's Acknowledgment
1.The Red Light
2.The Settlers
3.A Big-City Afternoon
4.Of Seven Fir Trees and the Snow
5.Crazy Magdalena
6.The Legacy
7.The Poorhouse of St. Laurin
8.Great, Inconceivable Hunger
9.A Winter's Day in the Mountains
10.The Decline of the West
11.The Landscape of the Mother
12.An Oldish Man Named August
13.The Story of a Man Who Left Home to See the World
14.The Pig-Keeper
15.Occurrences
16.A Springtime
17.A Witness's Testimony
18.A Young Writer
19.A Country Confidence Man
20.A Woman from the Foundry and the Man with the Rucksack
21.Lowlands
Translator's Notes
