Peter Demetz

Lessing was a playwright, scholar, poet, archeologist, philosopher, and critic. His genius is evident in the works collected in this volume, which includes the comedy Minna von Barnhelm, the tragedy Emilia, Galotti, Nathan the Wise, The Jews (and related correspondence), Ernst and Falk: Conversations for the Freemasons, and selections from philosophical and theological writings

Nathan the Wise, Minna von Barnhelm, and Other Plays and Writings: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Scenes from the Life of a European City

Prague in Black and Gold

Memories and History, Terror and Resistance, Theater and Jazz, Film and Poetry, Politics and War

Prague in Danger: The Years of German Occupation, 1939-45

The disciplines of criticism: essays in literary theory, interpretation, and history, ed

William Thomas Hobdell Jackson

An Anthology of German literature 800-1750

Italian Futurism and the German Avant-Garde

Nebenräume

Short Novels and Other Writings: Theodor Fontane

Contributing Authors Include Sergey Tretiakov, Hannah Arendt, Eric Bentley And Many Others. Brecht's Theory Of The Stage, World Famous Today, But All Two Often Misunderstood, Is Contrasted With The Rules Of Classic Theater And The Method Of Stanislawsky.

A Collection of Critical Essays

Brecht

Origins of Marxist Literary Criticism

Marx, Engels, and the Poets

A first-ever paperback edition. A rich and highly readable analysis of the literary scene in the German-speaking countries by an outstanding American scholar. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.

Recent Writing in the Germanies, Austria, and Switzerland

After the Fires

Italian Futurism and the German Literary Avant-garde

An entrancing avant-garde adventure at the dawn of the modern age In 1909, municipal authorities built an airfield in northern Italy and invited leading pilots to compete on it. The show attracted thousands of spectators--among them Giacomo Puccini and Gabriele d'Annunzio--and reporters, including, amazingly, Franz Kafka, Max Brod, and Luigi Barzini. Peter Demetz's sparkling new book tells the enchanting story of what happened in the air and on the ground before, during, and after this amazing moment. Kafka, it turns out, was a very precise observer of both the fragile new machines and the people who flocked to see them in action. Demetz shows us the spectacle as Kafka reported it, and also its unexpectedly melodramatic preparations, amazing dirigibles, and ace pilots--the American Glenn Curtiss, the Italian Mario Calderara, and the reigning king of the skies, Louis Blériot. But above all Demetz wants to know what flying really meant to these visionaries of the air: many political and imaginative issues were sent aloft at Brescia. With discerning affection, he elucidates Kafka's subtle ambiguities about the consequences of flight, d'Annunzio's lust for power in aviation, Puccini's enthusiasm for speedy escapes, and Curtiss's modest heroism. Illustrated with fascinating material from the show itself, this provocative work reveals a vital point where art and technology met in imagining the future.

Peter Demetz

Books

Your next favorite book is out there