The maimed
By: Hermann Ungar ; translated from the German by Kevin Blahut ; illustrated by Pavel Růt
Publisher: Twisted Spoon Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Prague
Language: eng
Translated from: ger
Number of pages: 218
Subjects: Suffering; Fiction; Loss (Psychology)
Work titles: Verstümmelten
Description: "Hermann Ungar (1893-1929) was born to a prominent Jewish family in Boskovice, Moravia and studied at university in Berlin and Prague, where he later lived. Called by Thomas Mann a "sexual hell" as well as "pure artistry," The Maimed is set in Prague and relates the story of a highly neurotic, socially inept bank clerk who is eventually forced to have sexual relations with his widowed landlady. At the same time he must witness the steady physical and mental deterioration of his lifelong friend who is suffering from an unnamed disease. Part psychological farce, Ungar tells a dark, ironic tale of chaos overtaking one's meticulously ordered life. Having died young, Ungar wrote only two novels, in addition to a handful of plays and short stories; this is the first time his work has appeared in English."--BOOK JACKET.