“The disintegration of values is the characteristic of our time.” Part One: 1888 – Pasenow or the Romantic The first part introduces Joachim von Pasenow, a young Prussian […]
German literature
The Death of Virgil
“For the poet, death is the final metamorphosis, the last transformation into the eternal.” Part One: Water – The Arrival The novel opens with the dying Roman poet […]
German literature
Berlin Alexanderplatz
“You must reckon with life, Franz Biberkopf, life is a reckoning.” Book One: The Punishment Begins Franz Biberkopf is released from Tegel prison after serving four years for […]
German literature
Doctor Faustus
“For beauty, my dear friend, is not so much a quality of the object itself as an effect in him who beholds it.” Prelude The novel begins with […]
Russian literature
Safe Conduct
“Art is not a profession, but a destiny.” Part One: Childhood and Early Influences The first part of Safe Conduct delves into Boris Pasternak’s early years, painting a […]
French literature
In Search of Lost Time
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Volume 1: Swann’s Way The narrator, Marcel, reflects on his childhood in […]
English literature
Mrs Dalloway
“Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, Nor the furious winter’s rages.” — William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (epigraph in Mrs Dalloway) Morning in Westminster Clarissa Dalloway, a high-society […]