Thank you for writing about this; very excited to read it. Well done digging out this treasure. It seems that so often books not written in English are little known in the U.K., US, and Ireland.
I only skimmed the beginning and the end of this, wanting to avoid possible spoilers, because this is on my TBR pile. I saw it reviewed about two years ago, then spotted it a few months back in a London bookstore. (Haven't yet seen it in the States!) Glad to see it get another vote of confidence.
There's an American edition of some variety but I've never seen a copy anywhere. I ended up ordering the Penguin Modern Classics edition, which includes some correspondence between Lernet-Holenia and Stefan Zweig--an interesting bonus. Zweig adored the book.
Thanks for highlighting this for me, I’ll have to track it down. The illustration portrays a lightcavalryman of the period called an uhlan in most European armies - light and fast enough to usually evade heavier cavalry and fast enough to be the terror of foot soldiers everywhere. Uhlans were the daring young lads of their day.
Which is interesting because Bagge and the other characters are—like Lernet-Holenia himself—dragoons. Still love the cover art, though. It’s appropriately otherworldly.
For what it’s worth, the real spoilers are in the details. When I was about to read the novel and looked it up on Wikipedia, that article gave away a little of the same by comparing it to “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Fortunately that comparison is inexact enough (and Baron Bagge good enough) that having some hint didn’t actually ruin anything.
Maybe it’s difficult to write about, but you wrote about it compelling enough to prompt me to get the book! Thank you!
Ordered it from Amazon. Thx for rec.
Thank you for writing about this; very excited to read it. Well done digging out this treasure. It seems that so often books not written in English are little known in the U.K., US, and Ireland.
Fascinating novel (and review). Will pick this up immediately. Thanks!
I only skimmed the beginning and the end of this, wanting to avoid possible spoilers, because this is on my TBR pile. I saw it reviewed about two years ago, then spotted it a few months back in a London bookstore. (Haven't yet seen it in the States!) Glad to see it get another vote of confidence.
There's an American edition of some variety but I've never seen a copy anywhere. I ended up ordering the Penguin Modern Classics edition, which includes some correspondence between Lernet-Holenia and Stefan Zweig--an interesting bonus. Zweig adored the book.
That's the same edition I picked up in the UK. Looking forward to reading it! Thanks.
Sounds like a great read. I'm on it.
Thank you for this fine review.
Thanks for highlighting this for me, I’ll have to track it down. The illustration portrays a lightcavalryman of the period called an uhlan in most European armies - light and fast enough to usually evade heavier cavalry and fast enough to be the terror of foot soldiers everywhere. Uhlans were the daring young lads of their day.
Which is interesting because Bagge and the other characters are—like Lernet-Holenia himself—dragoons. Still love the cover art, though. It’s appropriately otherworldly.
A little disappointed that I skipped the spoiler section only for you to tell me the big reveal in the very next paragraph.
For what it’s worth, the real spoilers are in the details. When I was about to read the novel and looked it up on Wikipedia, that article gave away a little of the same by comparing it to “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Fortunately that comparison is inexact enough (and Baron Bagge good enough) that having some hint didn’t actually ruin anything.