Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays [Paperback]

Christa Wolf (Author), Jan Van Heurck (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1988

In this volume, the distinguished East German writer Christa Wolf retells the story of the fall of Troy, but from the point of view of the woman whose visionary powers earned her contempt and scorn. Written as a result of the author's Greek travels and studies, Cassandra speaks to us in a pressing monologue whose inner focal points are patriarchy and war. In the four accompanying pieces, which take the form of travel reports, journal entries, and a letter, Wolf describes the novel's genesis. Incisive and intelligent, the entire volume represents an urgent call to examine the past in order to insure a future.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

In 1980 East German author Christa Wolf took a trip to Greece accompanied by her husband, Gerhard. In 1982 she was awarded a guest lectureship at the University of Frankfurt, where in May she delivered a series of five "Lectures on Poetics" relating to her Greek travels and studies. The fifth "lecture" was ad raft of the novel Cassandra, which she then revised and expanded for publication. The four introductory lectures were published separately in Germany under the title Conditions of a Narrative: Cassandra; The Frankfurt Lectures on Poetics (Voraussetzungen einer Erzählung: Kassandra). This volume presents the novel first, followed by its companion lectures, which illuminate its background and implications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition. first pb edition (May 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374519048
• ISBN-13: 978-0374519049
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > European

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Literary. What do you expect?, November 30, 2000

By 

"suppliciter" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays (Paperback)

At the risk of sounding somewhat elitist (if a high school student may call himself that), I have the distinct feeling that many highly critical reviewers of Cassandra have either (1) failed to appreciate the intensely literary nature of the novel, (2) become so fixated on the "apparent" aspects of Wolf's message to notice the infinite subtleties, or (3) been guilty of the most heinous form of reductionism. Admittedly, Cassandra is not an easy read; 138 pages (the story itself) of streaming consciousness is not for the casual reader. Nevertheless, it is precisely this stream of consciousness--one of the most capably written of its form--that unifies the myriad thematic commentaries of the novel into a coherent and powerful message. Also missed are the subtleties behind Wolf's supposedly hyper-feminist message. Wolf is careful to point to the mutability of sexual roles (Anchises and Penthesilea offer superb examples) and the significance of a dualistic appreciation of culturally-derived gender tendencies. Numerous readers are also prone to missing the point of Wolf's revisionist mythology; in doing so they are no less guilty than Wilhem Girnus (DDR editor of Sinn und Form) of fixating upon the "crime" of creating new life in previously established literature. It may be unpleasant to see our heroic figure of Achilles portrayed in a cripplingly negative light, but Wolf's very insistence upon doing so exposes the greatest fallacies of our victory-fixated Western outlook. Cassandra may be too literary for some, too complex for a reader interested in a quick fireside jaunt into Literature Lite, but its immense artistry as a novel may not be so easily ignored.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, provocative retelling., January 15, 1998

By 

Deb Oestreicher (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays (Paperback)

This is one of those books I've picked up and put down for more than 12 years, and now that I've read it through, I can't imagine why. The retelling of the story of Cassandra--really of the Iliad, from Cassandra's perspective--is completely compelling and provocative, raising questions about what history is and how it's made, and offering an alternate and completely reasonable view of how the Iliad's events could have happened.

Bonus: this volume offers essays providing background on how Christa Wolf came to write the novel--pure gravy for writers, or anyone interested in how stories get born.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a powerful book, intellectually engrossing., May 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays (Paperback)

For about five years I have read, reread and taught (to eleventh graders) Cassandra, and each time I have groped deeper into its human and literary liklihoods. It's still compelling to me for it myriad facets of content and form, but I can't help wondering about the real-politics of Ms Wolf's life and the masculine-feminine politics of our time. There is great learning in it and cause for great deliberation--by a woman awaiting violent death: Would what we call civilization be differently composed if even half our history, philosophy, psychology, politics, art had been penned by women? How was human prehistory ordered? Why is God-presence so matter of fact, and goddess-presence so contentious, if admitted? Who/What is Cybele, really? I can't wait to read Medea.