Kategoria BISAC: Literary Collections >> European - General

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929. This is a collection of his shorter works. "Death in Venice," later filmed by Lucion Visconti starring Dirk Bogarde, was published in 1911. It is a poetic meditation on art and beauty, where the dying composer Aschenbach (modelled on Gustav Mahler) becomes fixated by the young boy Tadzio. The other stories are: "Tonio Kroger"; the collection entitled "Tristan"; "The Blood of the Walsungs"; "Mario the Magician"; and "The Tables of the Law." A number of essays are also included.

Both works in this volume - a play by Carl Zuckmayer (1896-1977) and an unusual contemporary study of Nazi Germany by Sebastian Haffner (1907-99) - bear testimony to the disturbing events that were to change German history in the aftermath of World War I. The abridged translation of The Devil's General, which was approved by Zuckmayer himself, is about a World War I flier who commits suicide as he comes to realize the unintended havoc he has wrought in his obsession to fly.

Sebastian Haffner, whose real name was Raimund Pretzel (which was changed with the publication of Germany:...

In his brief but distinguished life, Anton Chekhov was a doctor, a documentary essayist, an admired dramatist, and a humanitarian. He remains a nineteenth-century Russian literary giant whose prose continues to offer moral insight and to resonate with readers across the world.

Chekhov experienced no conflict between art and science or art and medicine. He believed that knowledge of one complemented the other. Chekhov brought medical knowledge and sensitivity to his creative writing--he had an intimate knowledge of the world of medicine and the skills of doctoring, and he utilized...

Humanist, skeptic, acute observer of himself and others, Michel de Montaigne (1533--92) was the first to use the term "essay" to refer to the form he pioneered, and he has remained one of its most famous practitioners. He reflected on the great themes of existence in his wise and engaging writings, his subjects ranging from proper conversation and good reading, to the raising of children and the endurance of pain, from solitude, destiny, time, and custom, to truth, consciousness, and death. Having stood the test of time, his essays continue to influence writers nearly five hundred...

Christian Weises sog. politische Romane werden in den Banden 17 bis 19 der Samtlichen Werke vorgelegt: Band 17 enthalt "Die drey Hauptverderber" (1671) und "Die drey argsten Ertznarren" (1672). Sie sind in gattungs- und sozialgeschichtlicher Hinsicht hochst aussagekraftig. Weise hat sie als Sinnbilder seiner politischen Lebenslehre gestaltet und fur die Ausbildung der neuen Kaste der burgerlichen Beamten, die sich in hofischen Diensten geschickt - eben, politisch' - verhalten mussten, geschrieben. Die vier Romane sind Zentraltexte der mitteldeutschen Literatur der zweiten Halfte des 17....