After Nature (Modern Library) (Modern Library (Paperback)) - Softcover

W. G. Sebald; Michael Hamburger (Translator)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375756582 ISBN 13: 9780375756580

Publisher: Modern Library, 2003

Synopsis

After Nature, W. G. Sebald s first literary work, now translated into English by Michael Hamburger, explores the lives of three men connected by their restless questioning of humankind s place in the natural world. From the efforts of each, an order arises, in places beautiful and comforting, though more cruel, too, than the previous state of ignorance. The first figure is the great German Re-naissance painter Matthias Grünewald. The second is the Enlightenment botanist-explorer Georg Steller, who accompanied Bering to the Arctic. The third is the author himself, who describes his wanderings among landscapes scarred by the wrecked certainties of previous ages. After Nature introduces many of the themes that W. G. Sebald explored in his subsequent books. A haunting vision of the waxing and waning tides of birth and devastation that lie behind and before us, it confirms the author s position as one of the most profound and original writers of our time. Since 1917 The Modern Library prides itself as The modern Library of the world s Best Books . Featuring introductions by leading writers, stunning translations, scholarly endnotes and reading group guides. Production values emphasize superior quality and readability. Competitive prices, coupled with exciting cover design make these an ideal gift to be cherished by the avid reader.

About this title

Review:

A deeply intelligent book, but also a marvellously warm, exciting and compassionate one --Andrew Motion

A writer of almost unclassifiable originality, but whose voice we recognize as indispensable and central to our time. --The New York Times Book Review

The verse retains the Sebaldian virtues of rhetorical elegance and clarity, and sits well in English, as indeed does virtually every word he wrote. . . . [After Nature] is a work of great power and seriousness, fully worthy to stand beside the prose works of Sebald s last decade. --The New York Review of Books

About the Author:

W. G. Sebald was born in Wertach im Allgäu, Germany, in 1944. He studied German language and literature in Freiburg, Switzerland, and Manchester. He taught at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, for thirty years, becoming professor of European literature in 1987, and from 1989 to 1994 was the first director of the British Centre for Literary Translation. His previously translated books The Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants, Vertigo, and Austerlitz have won a number of international awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the Berlin Literature Prize, and the Literature Nord Prize. He died in December 2001.

About this edition

• Publisher: Modern Library
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0375756582
• ISBN 13: 9780375756580
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128