Volume 35, Number 14 · September 29, 1988
Death and the Dichter
By John Bayley
Posthumous Papers of a Living Author
by Robert Musil, translated by Peter Wortsman
Eridanos, 145 pp., $12.00 (paper)
Five Women
by Robert Musil, translated by Eithne Wilkins, by Ernst Kaiser
Godine, 222 pp., $8.95 (paper)
Robert Musil
by Lowell A. Bangerter
Ungar, 176 pp., $16.95
The German term Dichter is not at all readily translatable. It has a wider sense than 'poet,' and a more transcendental one than 'writer.' Goethe, the archetypal Dichter, created masterpieces in every genre, but was also the model of thinking and being, in the science and ethic of a civilized state. Never much like its English, French, or Russian counterpart, the German novel, coming from the pen of a Dichter, has always more resembled an enterprise of the philosophical imagination.
Review, 3722 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |