You are right, there is doom but also the sensation of being enveloped
by decadence, exactly the way you are explaining it. One of the great
books I have read.
On 4/27/07, Roger Day <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> A Man Without Qualities is undoubtedly a difficult book to get through
> as you know that all the plans, the hopes, fears and loves that the
> characters play out are inevitably doomed, but that the characters
> don't know they're doomed. Yet to read it is to be enveloped by
> decadence, to be engrossed by the machinations of a soicety that's
> doomed, but hasn't the self-knowledge to know it's doomed.
>
> I guess what struck me at the time was the character of Ulrich, and
> his inability to find something to do with his life that he actually
> wanted to do.
>
> I wish I could read the German version, but my German isn't good enough.
>
> Roger
>
> On 4/27/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Tess of the Durbervilles? It's the dramatic irony that gets to me. I find
> > things like that crucial letter pushed under the door and hidden by the mat
> > totally unbearable.
> >
> > joanna
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 9:30 AM
> > Subject: Re: Abrupt Snap - What is the saddest book ever written?
> >
> >
> > > It's hard to think of the saddest - there are lot of books that deal with
> > > sadness (I'm curious, why is Bridge over the River Drina loathsome,
> > > Jennifer? Is the book horrible, or does it deal with horror? should books
> > > not deal with horrible things?)
> > >
> > > But maybe the most devastating book I know of - the ending is one of the
> > > most profoundly sad I know - is The Last of the Just, Andre Schwartz-Bart.
> > >
> > > Cheers
> > >
> > > A
> > > --
> > > Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
> > > Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> > > Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
> > >
> >
>
>
> --
> My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
> "Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious." Oscar Wilde
>
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