At the start of WWII, Alexander Jessiersky, an Austrian aristocrat, heads a great Viennese shipping company. He detests the Nazis, and when his board of directors asks him to go along with confiscating a neighbor's large parcel of land for their thriving wartime business, Jessiersky refuses. Yet, without his knowledge, the board succeeds in sending the owner of the land, a certain Count Luna, to a Nazi concentration camp on a trumped-up charge. Years later the war is over, but after a series of mysterious events, Jessiersky, deeply paranoid, becomes convinced that Count Luna has survived and seeks vengeance; driven to kill the source of his dread, he decides to hunt down Luna--and his years-long chase after the spectral count finally takes him deep into the catacombs of Rome... &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The nightmare logic of Count Luna comes from deep within Jessiersky's festering fears and serves up his brooding, insanity-spiced, delicious disquisitions--on what the Etruscans knew, on cemeteries as originally "sleeping places"--before coming at last to death itself: "Well, well, well, thought Jessiersky, swallowing hard. So you do die after all. You refuse to believe that someday you will die but then you die. And you don't even notice it. And yet the fact that you don't is the best thing about dying..." &nbsp;

Count Luna

Literature & Fiction

Lernet-Holenia, Alexander

United States

New Directions

This astonishing short novel concerns the unfathomable, otherworldly experiences of an aristocratic young calvary officer in WWI A novel of love and valor, war and stupidity, life and death (as well as what may lay beyond our mortal coils), Baron Bagge concerns a young Austrian cavalry lieutenant in the Carpathian mountains at the beginning of WWI. The baron leads a desperate charge across a bridge to meet the Russian forces, following the orders of his mentally unstable commander: 
“We were soon to have proof of his unreliability… But perhaps it is not right to place the blame on him. Perhaps his foolishness was merely the instrument of fate, and the disaster into which he led his squadron, the slaughter of so many men and horses, took place in order that something which could no longer happen within the realm of the living―because it was too late―could happen after life.” And, swaying in a kind of fugue, the baron wanders off the bridge into unknown realms, where―mesmerized by Lernet-Holenia’s phosphorescent style―the reader joins his waking dream.

Baron Bagge

Literary

Two short novels deal with the experiences of a military officer at the close of World War I, and with the guilt of an industrialist who inadvertently causes Count Luna to be sent to a concentration camp in war-torn Europe

Baron Bagge Count Luna (Eridanos Press Library)

World Literature

Marsilio Pub

This book includes two short novels by Alexander Lernet-Holenia. The thin line between life and death, between reality and fantasy, is skillfully explored in these two short novels.As a writer, Alexander Lemet-Holenia combines the best of the classic tradition in literature with a surprisingly contemporary understanding of structure and language. Passages in Count Luna tracing lineage and metaphorical relationships are brilliant.

After waking from apparent death on the floor of the family crypt, Georg Maltravers resolves to live a second life under an assumed name

The Resurrection of Maltravers (Eridanos Press Library)

History & Criticism

The Standard

A man climbs into Ferdinand Sponer's cab, gives the name of a hotel, and before he reaches it has been murdered: shot through the throat. And though Sponer has so far committed no crime, he is drawn into the late Jack Mortimer's life, and might not be able to escape its tangles and intrigues before it is too late... Twice filmed, I Was Jack Mortimer is a tale of misappropriated identity as darkly captivating and twisting as the books of Patricia Highsmith. "One doesn't step into anyone's life, not even a dead man's, without having to live it to the end." Pushkin Collection editions feature a spare, elegant series style and superior, durable components. The Collection is typeset in Monotype Baskerville, litho-printed on Munken Premium White Paper and notch-bound by the independently owned printer TJ International in Padstow. The covers, with French flaps, are printed on Colorplan Pristine White Paper. Both paper and cover board are acid-free and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.

I Was Jack Mortimer (Pushkin Vertigo)

Pushkin Vertigo

'Love does not need any comforting. It does not even need requiting. All it needs is itself.' Florence, 1502. Marshal Louis de La Trémouille's small army has stopped off en route to Naples, to buy objects d'art for King Louis XII of France. Naturally, Leonardo da Vinci's workshop is on the shopping list; and during their visit to his house, the young nobleman de Bougainville chances upon the not-quite-finished Mona Lisa. He promptly, utterly and hopelessly falls in love with the woman in the painting, and is determined to find her - despite rumours that she has long ago died. A visit to an empty tomb, assault upon an Italian nobleman's mansion, duel and execution later, the secret of la Gioconda's smile is (possibly) revealed. An entertaining story, told with style - about love, life, art, and the Quixotic things that a man will do to realise his dream.

Mona Lisa (Pushkin Collection)

Pushkin Collection

"A terrific fast-moving book. . . a truly clever, rather wonderful book that both plays with and defies genre" - Irish Times A taxi-driver in 1930s Vienna impersonates a murder victim, and is caught into a dangerous spiral Twice adapted for film, I Was Jack Mortimer is a tale of misappropriated identity as darkly captivating and twisting as the books of Patricia Highsmith. "One doesn't step into anyone's life, not even a dead man's, without having to live it to the end." A man climbs into Ferdinand Sponer's cab, gives the name of a hotel, and before he reaches it has been murdered: shot through the throat. And though Sponer has so far committed no crime, he is drawn into the late Jack Mortimer's life, and might not be able to escape its tangles and intrigues before it is too late... Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: outstanding classic storytelling from around the world, in a stylishly original series design. From newly rediscovered gems to fresh translations of the world's greatest authors, this series includes such authors as Stefan Zweig, Hermann Hesse, Ry&#363;nosuke Akutagawa and Gaito Gazdanov.

I Was Jack Mortimer (Pushkin Press Classics)

Pushkin Press Classics

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lernet-Holenia, Alexander. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Lernet-Holenia, Alexander

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lernet-Holenia, Alexander. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Count Luna

Baron Bagge

Baron Bagge Count Luna (Eridanos Press Library)

Baron Bagge Count Luna (Eridanos Press Library)

The Resurrection of Maltravers (Eridanos Press Library)

The Resurrection of Maltravers (Eridanos Press Library)

The Standard

I Was Jack Mortimer (Pushkin Vertigo)

Mona Lisa (Pushkin Collection)

I Was Jack Mortimer (Pushkin Press Classics)