Beers & Books (414) – Geschichte des Prinzen Biribinker

The Story of Prince Biribinker
is considered the first literary fairy tale
to be published in the German language (1769).
Glorious. ;-)

Christoph Martin Wieland (5 September 1733 – 20 January 1813)

Beers & Books (413) – Han Kang: Greek lessons

Greek Lessons
*
La classe de grec

Han Kang *27 November 1970

Beers&Books (412) – La hija del comunista

The Communist's Daughter
*
La hija del comunista

Aroa Moreno Durán *1981

Beers & Books (410) Parlavà Suite & others

Suite de Parlavà (1991)
&
Algú que espera (1990)
&
Llibre de les solituds (1997)

 
Miquel Martí i Pol  (19 March 1929 – 11 November 2003)*

 * It looks as if non of Martí i Pol's work has yet been translated into English.

Beers & Books (409) – Dear Marta & Haikus ...

Estimada Marta
&
Haikús en temps de guerra

Miquel Martí i Pol  (19 March 1929 – 11 November 2003)

Beers & Books (408) – Henry Miller: Big Sur

Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch

Henry Miller (26 December, 1891 – 7 June, 1980)

Edna O'Brien

I wish Dame Edna could enjoy celebrating her 94th today. Perhaps she would tell us that her new book will be about an insane and megalomaniacal criminal who - you could laugh if it didn't make you want to vomit - has been elected President of the allegedly united States of America.

 

Without intending to belittle other writers, for me Edna O'Brien, together with John McGahern, is the greatest Irish author of the past decades. Both had in common their books were banned in Ireland.
Above's interview from 1976 is on her trilogy "The Country Girls".

 

 The interview above's taken in 2012.

And this one after release of ‘The Little Red Chairs’ (2015)

Enjoy!

Edna O'Brien (15 December 1930 – 27 July 2024)

Beat the drum, Heinrich!*

I have never seen an ass
who talked like a human being,
but I have met many human beings
who talked like asses.

Heinrich Heine (13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856)

* Heine's Doctrine

Beers & Books (407) – Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture

Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture

 Apostolos Doxiadis * 1953

Christian Goldbach (18 March 1690 – 20 November 1764)

Goldbach's Conjecture

Beers & Books (406) – Paul Lynch: The Prophet Song

The Prophet Song

Paul Lynch *1977

Beers & Books (405) – Sylvia Plath: Love Poems

Love Poems

Sylvia Plath (27 October 1932 – 11 February 1963) 

Beers & Books (403) – Máirtín O'Cadhain: The Key

Why would people call this book kafkaesque?
It's an excellent Ó Cadhain.

Máirtín ò Cadhain (1906 – 18 October 1970)

Beers & Books (402) – Miller: Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller (17 October 1915 – 10 February 2005)

Beers & Books (401) – Katherine Mansfield

The Collected Stories

Katherine Mansfield (14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923)

Beers & Books (400) – Fitzgerald: Master Stories

Master Stories

F. Scott Fitzgerald (24 September 1896 – 21 December 1940)

Beers & Books (399): Im Dezember der Wind

December Breeze / En diciembre llegan las brisas

Marvel Moreno (23 September 1939 – 5 June 1995)

Beers & Books (398) – Fermat's Last Theorem

Fermat's Last Theorem

Simon Singh *19 September 1964 

Pierre de Fermat (1607 – 12 January 1664)

Metamorphosis Kafkaesque a

This morning, as I was waking up
from sweet dreams,
I discovered that in my bed
I had been changed into a tiny insect
and now was sitting on my glasses
reading Kafka's Verwandlung:

One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up
from anxious dreams, he discovered
that in his bed he had been changed
into a monstrous verminous bug.
He lay on his armour-hard back and saw,
as he lifted his head up a little,
his brown, arched abdomen divided up
into rigid bow-like sections.
From this height the blanket, just about ready
to slide off completely, could hardly stay in place.
His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison
to the rest of his circumference,
flickered helplessly before his eyes.
“What’s happened to me,” he thought.
It was no dream.

Beers & Books (396) – Goethe 275

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832)

When I try to imagine the time of the original creation of those 20,000 pages of my thin-print complete edition, I suddenly think of some Flemish painters. Should be possible that Privy Councillor Goethe, who today would celebrate his 275th birthday, had some industrious penmen write for him? ;-)
The following may seem casual, but seriously:
The man spends 25 years of his life as political advisor, minister, theater director, “rides” in times of small statehood for one and a half years by horse-drawn stage coach to and through “Bella Italia”, and – not to forget the one or other amorous adventure that also takes up this and that hour – finds time by candlelight with quill and inkwell to write such an enormous oeuvre?
Chapeau!
Happy birthday, Wolfi! ;-)

Beers & Books (394) – Tarjej Vasaas: Das Eisschloss

The Ice Palace

Tarjei Vasaas (20 August 1897 – 15 March 1970)