About this title: The last writings of W. G. Sebald (1944-2001) are collected here. While it is infinitely sad to think that there will be no more, this volume is a treasure of Sebaldian meditations on his usual eclectic variety of subjects, including Nabokov, Kafka, Günter Grass, depictions in literature of Kaspar Hauser the wild child, and Sebald's own childhood in postwar Germany. An entire section, entitled "Prose" (as opposed to "Essays," the book's other section), is devoted to Sebald's musings on the island of Corsica.
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Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 1400062292 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Modern Library
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780812972320ISBN:0812972325
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Pristine condition unused and unmarked book. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 224 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Edition, First Printing.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House Inc, Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400062294ISBN:1400062292
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Ex-Library. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. An excellent hardcover copy, a library discard that seems to have received little or no use. The binding is solid and square. The text is clean and unmarked. The book's exterior and its duatjacket have been protected by an archival cover that looks almost new. -------------------------------------------------------This posthumous collection contains the surviving portions of an unfinished book about Corsica, along with essays ... read more
Description: Fine. 0241142776 Like new! ! Minor cover wear. Buy with confidence, Tracking information provided for all orders. Orders over $49.99 will receive an upgrade from standard to priority mail. Customer satisfaction guaranteed! ! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 2005-03-01
ISBN-13:9781400062294ISBN:1400062292
Description: Like New. Excellent condition. Clean DJ with very light shelf wear. Clean pages. Delivery confirmation included with US orders. dw. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: PENGUIN BOOKS LTD Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780141017860ISBN:0141017864
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 240 pages. (240 pages) a collection of essays that provides an insight into the themes that came to dominate sebald's life. sebald also examines the works of writers such as gunter grass, bruce chatwin and kafka, showing both how literature can provide restitution for the injustices of the world, and how such literature came to have so great an influence on him. illustrations (Paperback) read more
Edition: First edition. Illustrated.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400062294ISBN:1400062292
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 240 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. First U.S. edition. Second printing. Perfect condition. From seller's personal collection. read more
Edition: First edition. Illustrated.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House, New York
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400062294ISBN:1400062292
Description: Fine in very good dust jacket. A Fine Copy In Near Fine Dust Jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 240 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 2005-03-01
ISBN-13:9781400062294ISBN:1400062292
Description: Good. Ex-library copy in great condition! Mylar cover over dj and "Withdrawn" stamps on pages. Pages are clean and sharp otherwise. cover shows no damage. Thank you! read more
Description: Good. Minimal damage to cover and binding. Pages show light use. With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, Best Prices. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780141017860ISBN:0141017864
Description: New. A collection of essays that provides an insight into the themes that came to dominate Sebald's life. Sebald also examines the works of writers such as Gunter Grass, Bruce Chatwin and Kafka, showing both how literature can provide restitution for the i... read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Inc
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780812972320ISBN:0812972325
Description: New. In this final collection of sixteen essays by W. G. Sebald, one of the most elegant and incisive authors of our time, all of his trademark themes are contained-the power of memory and personal history, the connections between images in the arts and l... read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Random House Inc, Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400062294ISBN:1400062292
Description: As New. Advance Uncorrected Proof Publishers review promotional material laid in. read more
"I wasn't sure what to expect of this, as a collection of essays and other texts put together after Sebald's death, but it is excellent throughout. The four short pieces at the beginning of the book, all set on the island of Corsica, were apparently the beginnings of a full length novel that was put aside to finish Austerlitz. They are like a distillation of all that makes Sebald great: the solo amblings over loaded historical terrain, the strange coincidences, the scholarly digressions, the suggestion of a mind constantly on the verge of crisis, and thus productively unfettered.
The first story details Sebald's musings on the Bonaparte family, as he visits the small museums of Ajaccio. Pointing out the trecherous unpredictability of history, he questions the extent to which its study can really help us understand the forces that shape our lives. He relates the story of an amateur historian he once met who based his studies of Napoleon on the theory that the Emperor was colorblind, seeing the blood-stained battlefields of Europe in green, not red. "The more blood that flowed on the battlefield ... the greener Napoleon thought the grass was growing." Sebald concludes, in what could amount to a manifesto for his own work: "The most precise study of the past scarcely comes any closer to the unimaginable truth than, for instance ... this Belgian scholar..."
'Campo Santo', the second piece, is even better. After swimming far out to sea from an isolated beach on the island and feeling tempted to allow himself to drift on out to sea, he eventually turns back ("obeying the strange instinct that binds us to life") and scales the cliff again, ending up at an abandoned cemetery. What follows begins as an apparently straightforward historical discussion of the customs and superstitions surrounding death unique to the island, but gradually unfolds as a tour-de-force excavation of our impoverished contemporary funerary rites.
The 'essays' section of the book includes pieces on Kafka and Max Brod's visit to a brothel, poet Ernst Herbeck's hare lip, a meditation on the common mackerel, interspersed with typically free-ranging essays on authors and history that could easily be read as fragments from his novels, demonstrating again the truly original and essentially unclassifiable nature of his writing."
"Sebald at his best: Death, destruction and memory obsessed over and exhumed in the light art, literature and nature, and, among other things, absurdity, paranoia and love."
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