Lenz (English and German Edition)

Lenz, Georg Büchner’s visionary exploration of an 18th-century playwright’s descent into madness, has been called the inception of European modernist prose. Elias Canetti considered this short novella one of the decisive reading experiences of his life, and writers as various as Paul Celan, Christa Wolff, Peter Schneider, and Gert Hofmann have paid homage to it in their works. Published posthumously in 1839, Lenz provides a taut case study of three weeks in the life of schizophrenic, perhaps the first third-person text ever to be written from the "inside" of insanity. An early experiment in docufiction, Büchner’s textual montage draws on the diary of J.F. Oberlin, the Alsatian pastor who briefly took care of Lenz in 1778, while also refracting Goethe’s memoir of his troubled friendship with the playwright — English versions of both of these historical source texts here accompany Lenz for the first time in this bilingual presentation. Based on the best recent edition of the text, this fresh translation will allow readers to discover why Heiner Müller pronounced Lenz the inaugural example of "21st-century prose." Lenz , Georg Bchners visionary exploration of an 18th century playwrights descent into madness, grew in part out of Alsatian pastor Johann Oberlins journal, which is translated here in its entirety for the first time. Lenz is a dispassionate account on the nervous system of a schizophrenic, perhaps the first third-person text ever written from the inside of insanity. At his death at the age of 23 in 1837, Georg Bchner also left behind Leonce and Lena , Woyzeck , and Dantons Death psychologically and politically acute plays well ahead of their time. Richard Sieburths translations include Hlderlins Hymns and Fragments , Walter Benjamins Moscow Diary , Grard de Nervals Selected Writings and Henri Michauxs Emergences/Resurgences . His English edition of the Nerval writings won the 2000 PEN Book-of-the-Month-Club Translation Prize. Lenz / By Georg Büchner, Trans. R. Sieburth -- Lenz (german Language) -- Mr. L / By Johann Friedrich Oberlin, Trans. R. Sieburth -- Mr. L (german Language) -- Excerpt From Poetry And Truth / By Johann Wolfgang Goethe -- Dichtung Und Wahrheit / Von Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Georg Büchner ; Translated By Richard Sieburth. Includes Bibliographical References. English And German. "At his death at the age of 24 in 1837, Georg Buchner also left behind Leonce and Lena, Woyzeck, and Danton's Death - bold, psychologically and politically acute plays that were also well ahead of their time. His dramatic works exercised a profound influence on Brecht and Ionesco, as well as on the composer Alban Berg and the filmmaker Werner Hetzog."--BOOK JACKET THE 20TH, Lenz walked through the mountains.