num_pages: 128
description: After Nature, W. G. Sebald’s first literary work, now translated into English by Michael Hamburger, explores the lives of three men connected by their restless questioning of humankind’s place in the natural world. From the efforts of each, “an order arises, in places beautiful and comforting, though more cruel, too, than the previous state of ignorance.” The first figure is the great German Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald. The second is the Enlightenment botanist-explorer Georg Steller, who accompanied Bering to the Arctic. The third is the author himself, who describes his wanderings amongst the landscapes scarred by the wrecked certainties of previous ages.After Nature introduces many of the themes that W. G. Sebald explored in his subsequent books. A haunting vision of the waxing and waning tides of birth and devastation that lie behind and before us, it confirms the author’s position as one of the most profound and original writers of our time.
language: English
title: After Nature
titlecomplete: After Nature (Modern Library)
genres: Germany, Essays, 20th Century, Philosophy, Novels, Nature, Poetry, Literature, German Literature, Fiction
ratings_count: 1131
awards: awardedAt: 662716800000
name: Fedor Malchow Lyrikpreis
publisher: Modern Library