The Air Show at Brescia, 1909 [Hardcover]

Peter Demetz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0374102597 | ISBN-13: 978-0374102593 | Edition: First Edition

An entrancing avant-garde adventure at the dawn of the modern age

In 1909, municipal authorities built an airfield in northern Italy and invited leading pilots to compete on it. The show attracted thousands of spectators--among them Giacomo Puccini and Gabriele d'Annunzio--and reporters, including, amazingly, Franz Kafka, Max Brod, and Luigi Barzini. Peter Demetz's sparkling new book tells the enchanting story of what happened in the air and on the ground before, during, and after this amazing moment.

Kafka, it turns out, was a very precise observer of both the fragile new machines and the people who flocked to see them in action. Demetz shows us the spectacle as Kafka reported it, and also its unexpectedly melodramatic preparations, amazing dirigibles, and ace pilots--the American Glenn Curtiss, the Italian Mario Calderara, and the reigning king of the skies, Louis Blériot.

But above all Demetz wants to know what flying really meant to these visionaries of the air: many political and imaginative issues were sent aloft at Brescia. With discerning affection, he elucidates Kafka's subtle ambiguities about the consequences of flight, d'Annunzio's lust for power in aviation, Puccini's enthusiasm for speedy escapes, and Curtiss's modest heroism. Illustrated with fascinating material from the show itself, this provocative work reveals a vital point where art and technology met in imagining the future.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Demetz, an emeritus professor of German at Yale (Prague in Black and Gold), brings his research skills and background in literature to bear on this anecdotal account of a flying competition that took place in northern Italy during the early days of aviation. Attending the event, among other notables, were Franz Kafka and Italian poet Gabriele d'Annunzio. Kafka, who traveled to Brescia with several friends, including novelist and editor Max Brod, published a journalistic article about the show. D'Annunzio was infatuated with flying and managed to convince U.S. pilot Glenn Curtiss to take him on a flight that lasted only a few seconds. He later hitched a longer ride in a Wright biplane piloted by Italian aviator Mario Calderara. Composer Giacomo Puccini was also there, having fled his home for Brescia after a sex scandal that involved the suicide of a young servant girl, as Demetz narrates. In addition to an overview of the various flying contests (Curtiss won the grand prize), Demetz provides appealing thumbnail sketches of several competing pilots. Those interested in aviation history as well as a glimpse of the young Kafka will greatly enjoy this serendipitous account. B&w illus.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Beginning with the spur-of-the-moment decision by Franz Kafka and Max Brod to visit the 1909 Brescia air show in northern Italy in order to write articles about the event, Demetz (German and comparative literature, emeritus, Yale; Prague in Black and Gold) presents a lively, if somewhat chaotic, account of this "unique encounter of resourceful engineers, daring pilots, visionaries from the provinces, and eminent artists and writers." Demetz offers thoughtful speculations about the relevance of these early writings of Kafka and Brod to their later works. However, he bases these speculations on selected excerpts only (neither article is reproduced in full). For Demetz, the years 1909-12 were the "high season" for air shows. Along with his valiant attempt to demonstrate a connection with Kafka's and Brod's later writings, Demetz interweaves his chronicle of the Brescia air show itself with both a knowledgeable discussion of the growing popularity of competitions between "the new industrially produced vehicles of modern speed" and interludes of perceptive and affectionate portraits of such participants and onlookers as Glenn Curtiss, Louis Bl‚riot, Mario Calderara, Mario Faccioli, Allesandro Anzani, Gabriele d'Annunzio, Giacomo Puccini, and Arturo Toscanini. Although these portraits are disappointingly slight, Demetz offers a useful conclusion: the results of this "almost Arcadian affair" made it clear that, increasingly, flying was to be "of interest to industrial designers, engineers, and military planners" in the future. Recommended for large public libraries. Robert C. Jones, formerly with Central Missouri State Univ., Warrensburg
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (October 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374102597
• ISBN-13: 978-0374102593
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #666,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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