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Rings of Saturn

By W G Sebald

(9)

| Paperback | 9780099448921

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Book Description

The Rings of Saturn follows the triumph of Seybold's highly acclaimed American debut, The Emigrants (New Directions, 1996). A fictional account of a walking tour through England's East Anglia, Sebald's home for more than twenty years, The Rings of Saturn explores Britain's pastoral and imperial pastContinue

The Rings of Saturn follows the triumph of Seybold's highly acclaimed American debut, The Emigrants (New Directions, 1996). A fictional account of a walking tour through England's East Anglia, Sebald's home for more than twenty years, The Rings of Saturn explores Britain's pastoral and imperial past. Its ten strange and beautiful chapters, with their curious archive of photographs, consider dreams and reality. As the narrator walks, a company of ghosts keeps him company-- Thomas Browne, Swinburne, Chateaubriand, Joseph Conrad, Borges--conductors between the past and present. The narrator meets lonely eccentrics inhabiting tumble-down mansions, and hears of the furious coastal battles of two world wars. He tells of far-off China and the introduction of the silk industry to Norwich. He walks to the now forsaken harbor where Conrad first set foot on English soil and visits the site of the once-great city of Dunwich, now sunk in the sea, where schools of herring swim. As the narrator catalogs the transmigration of whole worlds, the reader is mesmerized by change and oblivion, survival and memories. Blending fiction and history, Sebald's art is as strange and beautiful as the rings of Saturn, created from fragments of shattered moons.

1 Review

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  • The blurb on the back claims this is a 'thought-provoking meditation on the transience of all things human', but I just found it a rambling collection of arcane knowledge allied with some lovely prose that served to further frustrate me.

    There are some lovely passages that made me really enjoy ... (continue)

    The blurb on the back claims this is a 'thought-provoking meditation on the transience of all things human', but I just found it a rambling collection of arcane knowledge allied with some lovely prose that served to further frustrate me.

    There are some lovely passages that made me really enjoy the language, but I found myself aching for some structure to hang it on.

    I gave up when I realised that it would continue in that vein.

    Is this helpful?

    Mearso said on Sep 21, 2009 | Add your feedback

Book Details

  • Rating:
    (9)
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  • English Books
  • Paperback 304 Pages
  • Edition: New Ed
  • ISBN-10: 0099448920
  • ISBN-13: 9780099448921
  • Publisher: VINTAGE (RAND)
  • Pub date: Nov 01, 2002
  • Dimensions: 1226 mm x 839 mm x 129 mm Just how big is that?
  • Also available as: Hardcover and Others
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9780099448921 Paperback $14.47 -- The Book Depository
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