Sebald's On the Natural History of Destruction explores German writers' silence about a moment of mass destruction In the last years of World War II, a million tons of bombs were dropped by the Allies on one hundred and thirty-one German towns and cities. Six hundred thousand civilians died, and three and a half million homes were destroyed. When it has cast such a very dark shadow over his life and work, Sebald asks, how have so many writers allowed themselves to write it out of their experience and avoid articulating the ...
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Sebald's On the Natural History of Destruction explores German writers' silence about a moment of mass destruction In the last years of World War II, a million tons of bombs were dropped by the Allies on one hundred and thirty-one German towns and cities. Six hundred thousand civilians died, and three and a half million homes were destroyed. When it has cast such a very dark shadow over his life and work, Sebald asks, how have so many writers allowed themselves to write it out of their experience and avoid articulating the horror? W.G. Sebald's On the Natural History of Destruction sparked a wide-ranging debate in the German press. 'Sebald makes exquisite art out of vile history' Boyd Tonkin, Independent 'One of the most important writers of our time' A.S. Byatt, New Statesman 'Demands to be read for its grand emotional power ... it absorbs and horrifies and illuminates' Scotsman 'Brilliant and disturbing' Antony Beevor, The Times W . G. Sebald was born in Wertach im Allgau, Germany, in 1944 and died in December 2001. He studied German language and literature in Freiburg, Switzerland and Manchester. In 1996 he took up a position as an assistant lecturer at the University of Manchester and settled permanently in England in 1970. He was Professor of European Literature at the University of East Anglia and is the author of The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn, Vertigo, Austerlitz, After Nature, On the Natural History of Destruction, Campo Santo, Unrecounted, For Years Now and A Place in the Country. His selected poetry is published in a volume called Across the Land and the Water.
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Seller's Description:
Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials.
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Seller's Description:
Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials.
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Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972. Used books may not include companion materials, some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, and may not include cd-rom or access codes. Customer service is our top priority!
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Good. Good condition books show wear and tear, such as dog ears, underlining, highlighting, creasing, damage to the dust jacket--they are more worn than books in very good condition, and may have yellowing pages and page edges, but are complete and... Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 224 p. Contains: Unspecified. Modern Library Classics (Paperback). Audience: General/trade.
If ones wishes to understand the impact of WW II on THE GERMANS--and one should, whatever one's immediate reaction to that concept--then reading this book will present it in the sparest, most economical and almost beautiful prose. As one who came to know the country living there in the 1960's, I found the late Mr. Sebald to be the first person to articulate not so much what terrors the German civilian population had suffered, but how the inescapable recognition of their country's total guilt in launching the war had created a conspiracy of silence, even among the fellow victims. This book deserves that overworked word masterpiece.
