HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Bernadette by Franz Werfel
Loading...

Bernadette (original 1941; edition 1949)

by Franz Werfel (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
749629,804 (3.93)46
The Song of Bernadette is considered one of the twentieth century's greatest novels of triumphant religious faith. How the book came to be written is itself an inspirational and even miraculous story. In 1940, famed Austrian author Franz Werfel and his wife were on a desperate flight from the Nazi invaders, whom Franz had publicly denounced. Repeatedly thwarted in their attempts to cross the French border, they found temporary refuge in Lourdes, home of the famous shrine where Bernadette received visions of the Virgin Mary and where millions come in faith to seek a miracle. Werfel became fascinated with Bernadette's story and began to visit the sacred grotto every day, swearing that, should he and his wife be granted escape from the Nazis, he would write the story of Bernadette for all the world. Franz's prayers were answered, and in America he wrote his masterpiece, The Song of Bernadette, a beautiful fusion of faith and craft.… (more)
Member:BibliotecaRambaldi
Title:Bernadette
Authors:Franz Werfel (Author)
Info:ARNOLDO MONDADORI EDITORE (1949), Edizione: V ED.
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:letteratura tedesca, narrativa tedesca, romanzo

Work Information

The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel (Author) (1941)

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 46 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)
The Song of Bernadette is a fictionalized account of Bernadette Soubirous's encounters with a woman who claims to be the Immaculate Conception (i.e. the Virgin Mary). Eventually, Bernadette-mania spreads across France and even the world, but she really wishes she could be left alone. Lourdes is now a major pilgrimage site, and the humble grotto where she had her encounters is now the site of a massive basilica, and Bernadette, who died young from tuberculosis, is now a saint.

The story behind the book, about the Jewish author and his wife hiding in Lourdes from the Nazis while trying to escape to the United States is almost more compelling than the actual result. But those interested in Bernadette's story, as well as those who liked the movie based on the book will find much to enjoy here. ( )
1 vote inge87 | May 28, 2016 |
122. The Song of Bernadette, by Franz Werfel (read 1943) I was totally inspired by this book and still, more than 70 years later, remember some of the account--though I suppose my memory has been aided by the movie, which I saw after I read the book. ( )
  Schmerguls | Sep 14, 2013 |
Pleasantly surprised and inspired by this book. It is a reminder of the close connection between the beautiful and the good. By his art, the author very effectively evokes Bernadette's experience of the beautiful lady who appeared to her at Lourdes, and the powerful effect it had on her. This in turn heightened my experience of the rest of the tale -- the story of the forces of family, state and even Church that questioned, doubted, and dismissed Bernadette's experience. And it certainly sweetened for me the lady's eventual triumph over all these forces!

Well worth reading!
  johnredmond | Sep 5, 2012 |
Great read, highly recommend. Story of a yound girl who sees visions of a lady in a grotto by the river and the desruption it causes the government and church and the intellectuals. ( )
  charlie68 | Jun 4, 2009 |
This is the famous and highly acclaimed classic work that tells the true story surrounding the miraculous visions of St. Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, France in 1858. Werfel, a highly respected literary writer who was an outspoken anti-Nazi from Vienna, became a Jewish refugee who barely escaped death from the Nazis in 1940, and wrote this moving story to fulfill a promise he made to God. Thus the story of how this book about a miracle came to be written is in itself something of a miracle.

As he and his wife were hiding out in the little village of Loudres while trying to escape to freedom in the USA during WWII, Werfel felt the Nazi noose tightening around them and realizing that they might well be caught and executed, he made a promise to God to write about the "song of Bernadette" that he had been deeply inspired by during their clandestine stay in Lourdes.

An amazing aspect of this powerful portrayal of a Catholic saint and an essentially Catholic story is that Werfel was a rather secular Jew, and yet he was so deeply impressed by both Bernadette and the happenings at Lourdes, that his writing has a profound sense of Catholicism's sacramental imagination about the world. ( )
4 vote Helger55 | Apr 26, 2008 |
Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (3 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Werfel, FranzAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bredemeyer, ElisabethTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lewisohn, LudwigTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Dem Andenken meiner Stieftochter Manon
First words
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
François Soubirous erhebt sich in der Dunkelheit.
Quotations
Last words
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

The Song of Bernadette is considered one of the twentieth century's greatest novels of triumphant religious faith. How the book came to be written is itself an inspirational and even miraculous story. In 1940, famed Austrian author Franz Werfel and his wife were on a desperate flight from the Nazi invaders, whom Franz had publicly denounced. Repeatedly thwarted in their attempts to cross the French border, they found temporary refuge in Lourdes, home of the famous shrine where Bernadette received visions of the Virgin Mary and where millions come in faith to seek a miracle. Werfel became fascinated with Bernadette's story and began to visit the sacred grotto every day, swearing that, should he and his wife be granted escape from the Nazis, he would write the story of Bernadette for all the world. Franz's prayers were answered, and in America he wrote his masterpiece, The Song of Bernadette, a beautiful fusion of faith and craft.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.93)
0.5
1 3
1.5
2 3
2.5
3 11
3.5
4 13
4.5 1
5 22

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,213,224 books! | Top bar: Always visible