Architect of Ruins
by Herbert Rosendorfer
134 Members (3.89)
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Description
The Architect of Ruins is considered one of the masterpieces of 20th century German fiction. An archetypal Dedalus novel with its literary game-playing and story-within-a-story technique. It has the labyrinthine brilliance of Robert Irwin's The Arabian Nightmare and Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.Four men led by the Architect of Ruins construct an Armagedon shelter, in the shape of a giant cigar, so that when the end of the world comes they can enter eternity in the right mood, whilst show more playing a Schubert string quartet. They amuse themselves by telling stories, which take on a life of their own, with walk on parts for Faust, Don Juan, da Ponte, and G.K. Chesterton etc as the narrative flashes back and forth between the Dark Ages and the Modern Day, like a literary Mobius strip.Although for European readers it will call to mind Jan Potocki's The Saragossa Manuscript, for English readers the wit and humour of The Architect of Ruins will make it read like a 20th century sequel to Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy. show lessTags
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bluepiano Another excellent novel of many stories.
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Story Within a Story
65 works; 16 members
Author Information
88+ Works 1,287 Members
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
detebe (10/II)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Architect of Ruins
- Original title
- Der Ruinenbaumeister
- Original publication date
- 1969
- Original language*
- Deutsch
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 833.914 — Literature & rhetoric German & related literatures German fiction 1900- 1900-1990 1945-1990
- LCC
- PT2678 .O755 .R813 — Language and Literature German, Dutch and Scandinavian literatures German literature Individual authors or works 1961-2000
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 134
- Popularity
- 243,785
- Rating
- (3.89)
- Languages
- 5 — English, French, German, Polish, Spanish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 13
- ASINs
- 1
