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Bezig met laden... Der Ruinenbaumeister (origineel 1969; editie 1991)door Herbert Rosendorfer
Informatie over het werkArchitect of Ruins door Herbert Rosendorfer (1969)
Story Within a Story (54) Bezig met laden...
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The Architect of Ruins is considered one of the masterpieces of 20th century German fiction. An archetypal Dedalus novel with its literary game-playing and story-within-a-story technique. It has the labyrinthine brilliance of Robert Irwin's The Arabian Nightmare and Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.Four men led by the Architect of Ruins construct an Armagedon shelter, in the shape of a giant cigar, so that when the end of the world comes they can enter eternity in the right mood, whilst playing a Schubert string quartet. They amuse themselves by telling stories, which take on a life of their own, with walk on parts for Faust, Don Juan, da Ponte, and G.K. Chesterton etc as the narrative flashes back and forth between the Dark Ages and the Modern Day, like a literary Mobius strip.Although for European readers it will call to mind Jan Potocki's The Saragossa Manuscript, for English readers the wit and humour of The Architect of Ruins will make it read like a 20th century sequel to Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)833.914Literature German and related languages German fiction Modern period (1900-) 1900-1990 1945-1990LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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The construction and the events happening there are engrossing--the magic show, the attacks from outside, the sacrifices that weaken the enemy, all within a House-of-Leaves sort of place. But most of the book is stories, stories of a startling range of times and places told by many narrators. Some are within each other, some within dreams, and some refer to elements in other stories. The book is a sort of doomsday Decameron, I suppose.
All the stories are absorbing, and making the book even more enjoyable is Rosendorfer's playfulness, a sly playfulness that creeps up on the reader rather than shouting Boom Boom! There are digs at a fellow writer, musical and literary references, and delightful pastiches: A story placed in England has all the silly names, presposterous situations, and rapid-fire plot complications of a certain strain of British comic (or, to me, 'comic') novel. A fairly disturbing horror story contains of course a castle, packs of wolves, an evil genius and a naive young victim. The same spirit of fun seems to underlie the self-referential passages and comments: A man is killed whilst reading a book and, asks a story-teller, 'Do you think it was mere chance that it [the book] was the Sargasso Manuscript?'
By disregarding what Rosendorfer's said about dreams, time, and the universe--and by ignoring a piece of paper with holes punched in it--someone who likes tidy endings could convince himself that in the end the novel has come full circle. In any case, it's wonderful stuff that I'll one day re-read, no doubt catching many allusions that I missed this time.