The Maimed

by Hermann Ungar

Overview

Grotesque and unsettling novel about the irrational fears of an obsessive bank clerk which end inmurder.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781907650819
Publisher:	Dedalus, Limited
Publication date:	11/21/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	351 KB

About the Author

German novelist (1893-1929).

What People are Saying About This

Lord

The Maimed is a great work. Subtly written, well-constructed. Kudos to Kevin Blahut for an excellent translation.

Stefan Zweig

....great and terrible, alluring and repulsive...unforgettable, although one would like to forget it and flee the evil sense of oppression it creates.

Thomas Mann

.....a sexual hell, full of filth, crime and the deepest melancholy ­ a monomaniacal digression, if you will, but nevertheless the digression of an inwardly pure artistry . . .

Editorial Reviews

This is an absolutely riveting tale . . . The translation by Kevin Blahut is fine. The design of the books is a gorgeous, subtle work of art all on its own

Ralph Magazine

[A] superlative introduction to an author whose small oeuvre¹s long absence from translation seems unforgivable.

Hyde Park Book Review

[O]ne of the most provocative novels I have ever read.
— Los Angeles Times

James Mcgonigle

David Lynch and Patrick McCabe fans will fall right into this marvelously dark and psychotically twisted tale. It is a maniacal blend of sadism mixed with the vivid portrayal of an individual¹s descent into psychosis and his perceptions of the equally insane world around him: Blue Velvet meets Butcher Boy.

New Pages

Ungar's The Maimed captures the suffocatingly claustrophobic life of Franz Polzer, a life haunted by lies, deceit, brutality, blackmail, and physical and moral corruption.

Education Digest

. . . a sexual hell, full of filth, crime and the deepest melancholy ­ a monomaniacal digression, if you will, but nevertheless the digression of an inwardly pure artistry . . .

In The Maimed, Hermann Ungar takes us to a bizarre interwar Prague populated by petty bureaucrats who are all unraveling inside.

The Prague Post

Ungar will survive any maiming and will emerge stronger. In Kevin Blahut, he has found a formidable and ruthlessly precise assailant.
—The Prague Pill

Joshua Cohen

The Maimed is a fascinating novel, rich in symbolism, rife with grievous suffering, and permeated with psychological torture ... Kevin Blahut's translation is exceptional given the many nuances that exist in Prague German.
—Slavic and East European Journal

Cynthia Klima

First English translation of a bleak 1928 novel by a forgotten Czech member of the generation of Döblin, Brecht, and Werfel. It’s a closely concentrated analysis of the frail psyche of obscure bank clerk Franz Polzer, a timid paranoid whose obsessive pursuit of order and control lead ironically to helpless explosions of irrationality and violence, and to his eventual undoing. Ungar’s understated prose (perfectly captured by veteran translator Mitchell) trains a cold clinical eye on the processes through which Polzer--in effect, a country mouse adrift in a wicked city--is seduced by his promiscuous landlady and misled by his satanic "best friend," a moribund, wheelchair-bound misanthrope, thus set on a path toward self-destruction. Unusual and unsettling: what a film it would make.

Kirkus Reviews