Physiker, Die (German Literary Texts)

Education & Teaching

Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Schools & Teaching

Nelson Thornes Ltd

Versprechen, Das

Contains the complete text of a new satire written in the form of a mystery drama.

Die Physiker (English and German Edition)

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Oxford University Press

Visit

Dramas & Plays

Jonathan Cape Ltd.

Dürrenmatt once wrote of himself: “I can best be understood if one grasps grotesqueness,” and The Visit is a consummate, alarming Dürrenmatt blend of hilarity, horror, and vertigo. The play takes place “somewhere in Central Europe” and tells of an elderly millionairess who, merely on the promise of her millions, swiftly turns a depressed area into a boom town. But the condition attached to her largesse, which the locals learn of only after they are enmeshed, is murder. Dürrenmatt has fashioned a macabre and entertaining parable that is a scathing indictment of the power of greed.

The visit: A tragi-comedy (Cape plays)

The Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–90) was one of the most important literary figures of the second half of the twentieth century. During the years of the cold war, arguably only Beckett, Camus, Sartre, and Brecht rivaled him as a presence in European letters. Yet outside Europe, this prolific author is primarily known for only one work, The Visit. With these long-awaited translations of his plays, fictions, and essays, Dürrenmatt becomes available again in all his brilliance to the English-speaking world. This second volume of Selected Writings reveals a writer who may stand as Kafka’s greatest heir. Dürrenmatt’s novellas and short stories are searing, tragicomic explorations of the ironies of justice and the corruptibility of institutions. Apart from The Pledge, a requiem to the detective story that was made into a film starring Jack Nicholson, none of the works in this volume are available elsewhere in English. Among the most evocative fictions included here are two novellas: The Assignment and Traps. The Assignment tells the story of a woman filmmaker investigating a mysterious murder in an unnamed Arab country and has been hailed by Sven Birkerts as “a parable of hell for an age consumed by images.” Traps, meanwhile, is a chilling comic novella about a traveling salesman who agrees to play the role of the defendant in a mock trial among dinner companions—and then pays the ultimate penalty. Dürrenmatt has long been considered a great writer—but one unfairly neglected in the modern world of letters. With these elegantly conceived and expertly translated volumes, a new generation of readers will rediscover his greatest works.

Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Selected Writings, Volume 2, Fictions

Literary

University of Chicago Press

Verdacht, Der (Modern World Literature)

George G.Harrap & Co.,Ltd

The worldâ€™s greatest physicist, Johann Wilhelm MÃ¶bius, is in a madhouse, haunted by recurring visions of King Solomon. He is kept company by two other equally deluded scientists: one who thinks he is Einstein, another who believes he is Newton. It soon becomes evident, however, that these three are not as harmlessly lunatic as they appear. Are they, in fact, really mad? Or are they playing some murderous game, with the world as the stake? For MÃ¶bius has uncovered the mystery of the universe—and therefore the key to its destruction—and Einstein and Newton are vying for this secret that would enable them to rule the earth.

The Physicists: A Play

Grove Press, Inc.

The Meteor

GROVE PRESS

When F. accepts the assignment to investigate the alleged rape and murder of Otto von Lambert's wife, she becomes entangled in a world of mistaken identity, terrorism, political intrigue, and espionage

The Assignment: or On the Observing of the Observer of the Observers

Reference

Random House]

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Books by Friedrich Dürrenmatt