The Diary of Kaspar Hauser
Language: English
Published by Negative Capability Press, 2017
- Hardcover
- New

Seller: California Books, Miami, FL, U.S.A.California Books
AbeBooks seller since October 27, 2023
Condition: New
£ 20.85
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Add to basketSeller Inventory # I-9780998677705
- Title
- The Diary of Kaspar Hauser
- Author
- Paolo, Febbraro
- Publisher
- Negative Capability Press
- Publication year
- 2017
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0998677701
- ISBN 13
- 9780998677705
This intriguing gem of a book is a direct, germinal expression of the authorís longstanding fascination with the figure of the Idiot in Western literature. Part notebook, part ethical treatise, part fantasized autobiography, The Diary of Kaspar Hauser is a striking collection of forty or so haiku-like compositions, diary entries imagined to have been penned by the "idiot" Kaspar Hauser and discovered, by chance, after his death by brutal murder, among the papers of his patron, Franz Paul Webern. (Franz is Kasparís interlocutor throughout the poems.) This hyperpoetic component of the book - inspired by Werner Herzogís masterful film - is sandwiched between two essays: the first, an Introduction recounting the remarkable discovery and history of the fabled manuscript; the second, comprising a one-page Epilogue (which details the death of Kaspar) along with a letter in the form of an Appendix by a fictional, highly cultured, Borges-like literary critic who converses with the eponymous "Febbraro" about his startling, dreamlike find.
The book has all the characteristics - concision of language, fanciful flights of fiction and criticism in concentrated poetic form, sparse elements of theatrical dialogue, a fierce philosophical underpinning - to make for an "ancient novelty" of sorts: a daring book that surprises and forces us to rethink what we think we already know.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
"Magnificent. Paolo Febbraro is an extraordinary poet and his Kaspar Hauser is a hymn to pure ingenuity and intelligence, a book that raises challenging questions." - Luis Sepúlveda
"What is this space with limitless temporalities and voices rendered with such beauty by Febbraro and translator Molino? It is our inner world, the realm of everything, and this precious poem is a gift to all of us." - Christopher Bollas
"Molino's versions capture the otherness of Febbraro's original extremely well, and have a disconcerting vitality to them." - Prof. Peter Hainsworth, University of Oxford
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
California Books
Miami, FL, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since October 27, 2023
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