From Publishers Weekly
These two mandarin intellectuals first met in 1923 in Frankfurt am Main. Joined by a powerful interest in philosophy and criticism, Adorno (1903-1969) and Benjamin (1892-1940) became intellectual allies by the end of the decade. Their extraordinary correspondence caught fire when Hitler's rise to power in 1933 drove the two German Jews into exile: Benjamin to Paris, Adorno to England and then to the U.S. The 121 letters in this carefully annotated and beautifully translated volume present a remarkable dialogue between two innovative thinkers. In Paris, Benjamin was living hand-to-mouth, working on his "Arcades Project" (see Forecasts, Nov. 29), a penetrating inquiry into the cultural underpinnings of 19th-century Europe. In England at Merton College, Oxford, Adorno was working on a variety of projects, including raising money to keep Benjamin afloat. Additionally, Adorno was a member of the Institute for Social Research (the so-called Frankfurt School) and was attempting to bring Benjamin into its orbit by steering pieces of "The Arcades Project" into the journal it published. But Adorno was also an exacting reader of Benjamin's work. He pressed the elusive thinker hard and in illuminating detail on "The Arcades Project." Over many of its pages, this correspondence delves deeply into this strange, unfinished masterpiece. There are also fine pages on Kafka, on Gershom Scholem and many other intellectual luminaries of the Weimar era. But the letters are also humanly touching. In 1938, Benjamin writes to his friend "Teddie": "I do not know how long it will still physically be possible to breathe this European air." Not long, as it turns out. Hounded by the Gestapo, in 1940 Benjamin committed suicide while trying to escape. The final letter of this collection is a suicide note. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The Arcades Project, which Benjamin worked on for 13 years before his death, was an attempt to capture the reality that he believed underlay the political, economic, and technological world of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the phenomenon of the Paris arcades, Benjamin saw a turning away from a communal society based on mutual concern to one based on material well-being and economic gain. To fortify his argument, Benjamin used quotations from a variety of published literary, philosophical, and artistic sources and added his own reflections and commentary. Because of Benjamin's untimely and tragic death, this is not a finished work, but, nonetheless, the architectonic of the whole is impressive in its breadth and as an attempt at historical comprehension. Also included is a poignant, beautifully written eyewitness account of Benjamin's last days and hours. The Complete Correspondence 1928-1940 is an excellent accompaniment to The Arcades Project since a considerable portion of the correspondence between Adorno and Benjamin included here concerns the work that Benjamin called "the theater of all my struggles and all my ideas." Originally published in Germany in 1994, the 121 letters included begin in 1928 and allow an intimate look at the two men's personalities, their philosophical thinking, and their attitudes toward the events, persons, and ideologies of the contemporary world. The last letter is from Benjamin, shortly after he was denied entry into Spain in a futile attempt to flee the Nazis and, thus, shortly before his suicide. Recommended for academic collections.
-Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt. Lib., Washington, DC Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
