Auto-da-Fé: A Novel

It can be renamed as 'How one thinks.' Canetti takes you to the mind of each and every characters of the book: bookworm, uneducated, police, doctor, thief, beggar, hawker, etc. Certainly the reader will feel as if s/he is living more than one life. Why has Canetti written only one novel???

The book delves into the ideas of obsession and authoritarianism (something Europe and the world at large were already grappling with, at the time when the book was written). It also questions whether intellectuality can grow and sustain in isolation and how much of it borders elitism. Peter Kien , an extremely well read man, is a great Sinologist (grander is his idea about himself, though). He lives in Vienna, alone in an apartment and is religiously invested in his academic pursuits. He refrains human contact. He doesn't have a job for he considers these to be corrupting his scholastic might but he lives off an inheritance. He hires a help named Therese to look after the household and most importantly, his library. She sincerely renders her service for several years and Kien , mightily impressed with the way she takes care of his books, ends up making a catastrophic misjudgment. He marries her and she reveals her true intentions soon after. Their marriage was never meant to last, it was more of an arrangement but Therese becomes hell bent on acquiring Kien's will. She doesn't really understand that his wealth does not lie in money but in his carefully and laboriously built library. Like Peter Kien who has a maddening fixation with books and knowledge, Therese has a similar obsessive greed for Kien's wealth. Her own grand idea about her being a 'respectable woman' sends her to an awful frenzy to the extent that she abuses Peter and drives him out of the house. Kien, evidently traumatized, wanders about, stays in hotels, exhausts all his money in rebuying books and builds, what he calls, a mental library. In a shanty club, he meets Fischerle, a poor & a shady humped back dwarf. Fischerle is extremely manipulative, considers himself as a Chess wonder (without any significant merit) and harbors this fixated desire to live in the United States. He shares Kien's extreme contempt for women and with this, is able to win his trust but soon begins to give designs to his overarching ambitions by pawning Kien's books. Kien does not immediately realize but the practice leads to Fischerle's frightening nemesis. All the men, Kien initially bonds with ( only to regard them later with extreme disgust) be it Fischerle or Benedict Pfaff (the caretaker of his apartment) share Kien's misogyny. All the revered men, Kien holds the highest regard for, have had a history replete with instances of unchecked misogyny. This makes the reading a lot more difficult. The book's frequent chauvinistic references could also be intentional. It might have been incorporated to show the hollowness of intellectuality and elitism. It possibly intentionally exposes the derisive and parochial ideas of the world's greatest men. Having said that and without having read his other works, I doubt Canetti's own views about women. The book mostly happens in the heads of these characters and we closely see their monomaniacal desires , their ungrounded fears and illusions. For the reader, it might become difficult to quickly adapt from a physical setting to the character's decrepit head. This is what makes the book eccentric and complex. Its not a gentle gratifying read. It offers no respite because as the book progresses, the characters turn more vile, abject and debased. The writing will even seem to unnecessarily drift which mirrors the actual functioning of thoughts. Explaining the title will be a spoiler. There are many triggering instances. Please assume caution.

Unless otherwise u r extreme person with extrordinary intelect - don' go 4r this book.it was mysterious book with too much to understand.the perception,analogy,inspiration with which writer wrote this book is difficult to grasp.there is no particular plot but innovative presentation makes it a peculiar one.if u r woman, then don't go for it--believe me,it simply infuriates you. I liked this book some what 4r strange reasons;when i was introduced to the protogonist, i felt like myself;then i locked myself to the book.i felt engaging up to 150 pages, but afterwards i simply gone mad.i was so furiated that i want to tear this book& throw it in fire. the book divided in to 3 parts. 1.the head without a world. 2.headless world. 3.the world in the head. The 1st part was superb.......the 2nd part - as its name indicates-converts u into a mad piece. It shows the stupidity of world....but too much discription,trivial minute details,nihilistic statements about women throughout the book makes u sick...writer was such a genius that u will be terrified by his elobarated crystal clear discription-in a lybrinth-of total mysterious unknown world. 3rd part::: first of all i have to congratulate u that u have sustained urself upto this part.....this part -somewhat-offers u relief compared to previous part...in this part the last 40 pages are superb-even though they pass so many derogatory statements about women. I hav connected with this story because::: "i am a mad book lover...i like to wonder in book stores...i count hours interms of reading a book.an hour means 20 pages of reading to me.i ignore people in the street.i hate mob.i constantly worry myself to meet known people&friends.2 avoid trivial encounter with frnds,i avoid myself coming out of my room.generally i hug books and sleep.i love women because they r the only diversion from books.i hate women because they r so powerful that -in their presence-i may loose my love to books". I cited my qualites not to flatter myself,but to inform u,inspite of having these qualities i was so terrified with this book..... Most of the times i failed to grasp the inner meaning.... On conclusion note, if u r mad go for it......if u want to be mad go for it....if u want stay in ur comfort zone,avoid it.....if u want to become a skillful writer,go for it...if u r woman never touch it... Some of the pages which were brilliant:1-50,95,110,120,121-124,133,284304,307,316(this page contains whole story so far),319,362,387,411,427,453

I managed 200 pages before admitting defeat. This is an extremely strange work, and though I was intrigued by the storyline and the writing, by the time we start part 2 it's moving beyond strange to Kafkaesque. Peter Kien is obsessed with his vast book collection and the pursuit of knowledge. An eminent sinologist, he eschews the world of academia and lives alone, poring over his tomes. His books are constantly dusted and even addressed as if they're people. The only person who shares his world is housekeeper Therese. Ugly, poor, money-hungry and small-minded, but Kien sees some imaginary quality in her - a carer for his books - and marries her. I liked how Canetti brings her alive by describing her thoughts in the trite, repetitive, meaningless phrases that characterize her: "If she sees anything she knows how to make use of it. She doesn't see many things. She hasn't ever been outside the town, She's not one for excursions, a waste of good money. You don't catch her going bathing, it's not respectable. She doesn't care for travelling, you never know where you are. If she didn't have to go shopping, she'd prefer to stay in all day. They all try to do you down. Prices going up all the time, things aren't the same any more." But as married life becomes monstrous and Kien is forced to consort with a hunch-backed chess expert at a lowly hostelry, it all got a bit too surreal and I gave up...

An amazing book - unforgettable characters, a plot that moves, a surprise ending and a beautiful style of writing. Hard to believe it's a first novel.

Ich hatte noch nie etwas von Canetti gelesen und war vollkommen überrascht über dieses skurrile Buch, das an Kafka erinnert. Ungleich Kafka ist die Erzählung aber lang, fast ein bisschen zu lang. Man wird ungeduldig mit dem Protagonisten, ja ärgerlich, möchte auf den Tisch hauen. Aber das ist wohl so gewollt. Ich hatte das Buch als e-book heruntergeladen. Der Zufall wollte es, dass ich zur gleichen Zeit über die Musik Canettis Tochter kennenlernte, die mir aus ihren Fundus ein gedrucktes Exemplar schenkte, worüber ich mich sehr gefreut habe.

That is what I've said to myself so many times while reading this book, usually with a laugh. The first section with the protagonist Professor Kien and his maid-turned-wife and antagonist Therese and their madhouse apartment is just the beginning, and oh boy, buckle up! After that Kien tramps around meeting all sorts of even crazier people and crazy things happen, most of which occurring within a character's mind which is where this book is really interesting. So many digressions that are held together by some sort of logic to the individual's obsession. Each character has some sort of mad obsession, and when their obsession comes in contact or conflicts with another's the bizarre drama unfolds. Other reviewers comment on who Canetti's writing reminds me of, so I will too! I was really reminded of Dostoevsky's hysterical characters (especially in The Idiot & Notes) and all their wild goings-on. Add to that some Beckettian wanderings a la Molloy and absurd black humor, and then some Thomas Bernhard obsessive, monomaniacal rants. Most of this book goes on in "the lower depths" so we meet lots of thieves, whores, blind beggars who aren't blind, ultraviolent ex-policemen, and the pinnacle, Fischerle - the chess-obsessed, hunchback, dwarf pimp. And then there's Kien, oh baby. So please read this great, little known book (I'm 44 with a BA & MA in Eng Lit and have never heard a whisper about it), and enjoy!

It's hard to describe this book. The writing is very powerful but the book can be heavy going. It's worthwhile persevering with. Not a good read if you want something to lift your spirits if you are self isolating.

This is a most remarkable novel written in 1935 by this Bulgarian Nobel winning novelist. This immediately appears to be an excellent translation of the German (I'm no expert but suspect the poor ratings given by others confuse the 'original style' as a poor translation?). The book is quite long 430 pages of dense small text. The basic story centres around fiftysomething Peter Kien, a scholar of all things Oriental and bibliophile. He's insular, intellectual, virginal, never married, slightly misogynist, uptight, knowledgeable and alone. Peter has a huge library which means everything to him. He has a younger brother called George who's a psychologist who he hasn't seen for many years. After eight years in service his housekeeper Therese plots to marry Peter believing him extremely wealthy. She is poorly educated, cannot read well, also fifty but imagines herself thirty, money grapping, scheming and sour individual. After a single incident of brain manipulation by pretending to revere a book, they end up marrying. On the wedding night, wearing a fulsome blue dress (which keeps repeating in the story - a representation of the Virgin Mary?) she either actually or otherwise puts him off - they don't consummate the marriage and Peter realises his mistake. But too late - she controls, beats and schemes to get written in his will, take over Peter's flat etc. They both seem to enter periods of madness and deliberate misunderstandings (for example a key early one is that the wealth Therese imagines Peter has gets confused by Peter as an inheritance of Therese (to spend on more books)). They have delusions and accidents, Therese falls for a shop assistant, Peter falls off a ladder (trying to turn all his books round so the spine/title cannot be read) and there's a whole period of belief he's died - this introduces the simple yet respectful ex-policeman, caretaker Benedikt, another strange character. Peter is eventually forced to leave with his bankbook/money locking Therese in the flat. He finds the Jewish, dwarf, criminal chess-champion gang leader Fischerle who recues Peter from a mob stealing his money. Yet Fischerle regrets his actions when he could have had some himself and then precedes to form a gang (a hawker, Blind man, his ex-wife and sewer man)to con Peter of all the money whilst being his hotel room librarian. Peter believes he's murdered Therese and ends up being arrested (alongside Therese) and keeps quiet whilst being interrogated - A letter Fischerle sends brings George to analyse Peter. {I've given no more of the story away than is written on the back covered) Please don't confuse this as a standard story and novel, the style is dense, difficult, deep, imaginative, philosophical and rather surreal. There aren't many characters, there's the reality motives story underlying the internalised, delusional view of the world of the people involved. The book is a cross between Bely's Petersburg, Gunter's Tin Drum and Faulkner's Absalom. "Auto de Fe" means `Act of faith' more factual `Act of Penitence' and I guess Peter is allowing his actions to amend for his person. Some quotes/passages (the first earlier example describes how Peter has yet to discover blindness, and sort of summaries the whole delusional basis of the book): "Blindness is a weapon against time and space; our being is one vast blindness, save only for that little circle which our mean intelligence - mean in its nature as in its scope - can illuminate. The dominating principle of the universe is blindness. It makes possible juxtapositions which would be impossible if the objects could see each other. It permits the truncation of time when time is unendurable. Time is a continuum whence there is one escape only. By closing the eyes to it from time to time, it is possible to splinter it into those fragments with which alone we are familiar." "She would not forgive him for being alive when he was dead, but she was ready to overlook it, since he still had his will to make" "it was Christ with Toothache" "Quicker and quicker came Therese's fears. Sometimes he had murdered his first wife, sometimes he had murdered her. She thought the skirt away from the corpse; the skirt confused her more than anything; she was sorry for his first wife, because he'd treated her skirt so badly. She was ashamed of the wretched funeral. She hated the bloodhound. People have no manners and school children don't get the cane often enough. Men ought to work more and women can't cook these days. She could give them a piece of her mind. What's it got to do with the tenants? They all come and peep." Finally if you haven't been persuaded to read this brilliant book (sorry that's my poor review not the book) I'd mention it's in three parts titled `A head without a world', `Headless work' and finally `The world in the head'. A lot of effort required but an easy 5 stars.