Hybrids of the short story and the essay, these prose pieces contest traditional interpretations of history and present Herbert's very different ("apocryphal") views. This new work of prose from the much celebrated Zbigniew Herbert--available for the first time in English--is a fascinating rewriting of myths and tales "as old and as simple as the world." In the title story, "The King of the Ants," Herbert considers the tension between humankind's "solemn idleness" and "progress-that treacherous force." Other pieces include a new reading of the old story about Alexander the Great hacking the great knot to bits ("The Gordian Knot"), an ode to the mythic suffering of "the catatonic of mythology" ("Atlas"), and a Chinese tale about the dangers of vanity and authority ("Mirror"). All of the pieces on "The King of the Ants" have been translated by John and Bogdana Carpenter, who have been praised for their "linguistic precision and poetic mastery" by "Choice."
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Although he never quite attained the fame of his compatriots Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska, the late Zbigniew Herbert was one of the giants of contemporary Polish letters--not to mention European literature at large. His witty, superbly ironical verse flourished in the face of totalitarian censorship: indeed, with its overlay of parable, allegory, and deadpan allusiveness, it seemed almost to be nourished by the ideological obstacle course of 20th-century Poland. But Herbert was an equally gifted essayist. The pieces collected in Barbarian in the Garden and Still Life with a Bridle are wickedly intelligent and unfailingly humane. And even when the author is letting loose with a satirical dart, his imagination always functions as "an instrument of compassion."
The King of the Ants combines his twin vocations. That is, these are short prose pieces, which Herbert called "mythological essays." Yet the form itself--in which he takes apart the classic myths and expertly tinkers with their innards--has the speed and epigrammatic suavity of his best poetry. Here, for example, is Herbert's take on Atlas, whom we might call the king of mythological heavy lifting:
The whole character of Atlas, his entire being, is contained in the act of carrying. This has little pathos, and moreover it is quite common. The titan reminds us of poor people who are constantly wrestling with burdens. They carry chests, bundles, boxes on their backs, they push them, or carry them behind, all the way to mysterious caves, cellars, shacks, from which they come out after a moment even more loaded, and so on to infinity.Herbert is no less intrigued by Antaeus, who went head to head with Heracles himself in a celebrated wrestling match. On one hand, he tries to visualize the actual bout, taking his clues from accounts by Plato, Pindar, and the Renaissance miniaturist Antonio Pollaiuolo. But it's the metaphorical implications of the match that really get him going--the way it reverses our usual image of victor and vanquished. His subject, he reminds us, "had to overcome the concept, deeply rooted in us all, of what we call high and low, the elevation of the victor and the throwing of the defeated down into the dust. For every time Antaeus was lifted up, it meant death for him." In the author's hands, these musty figures become almost alarmingly contemporary--and entertaining. And while he never weighs down his essays with philosophical ballast, they do contain more than their share of casual wisdom. Like the philosophers he mentions in the title essay, Herbert too had "the not very tactful habit of teaching others how to live." --James Marcus
From Publishers Weekly
Employing a Borgesian pedant-narrator in these delightful "mythological essays," acclaimed Polish poet Herbert (Elegy for the Departure; Barbarian in the Garden) reconstructs classical myths, drawing on conflicting sources and embellishing as he sees fit. In the nine pieces here, Herbert engages with figures as obscure as Cleomedes of Astipalea and as familiar as Atlas. The opening and closing "essays"?"Securitas" and the title piece?are political allegories. The seven other tales examine individuals, either those who have been overlooked, or those who, despite their mythic dimensions, are surprisingly hapless: Ares, the god of war, finds himself handily defeated; Cerberus, the multi-headed dog who guards the gates of hell, becomes, once tamed by Heracles, a faithful pup; Endymion is beloved by a goddess and granted immortality?but at the cost of remaining in an eternal slumber. And in the title entry, the Myrmidons (the "ants" of the title) constantly undermine the innovative, democratizing plans of their king, Ajax, simply by adhering to their traditional conception of his autocratic power. Advised by highly educated outsiders, Ajax stages his own assassination, hoping to bring change to his people. Luckily, their simple goodness is too much even for such machinations, and in the end, he returns to rule them again, cured of his need to "improve" things. Herbert's success here lies in a lightness of touch, never pressing his ironies, but letting them unfold gently. These pieces, like the best of mythology, tackle weighty issues while maintaining a pleasantly slight?or in the case of this volume, slim?appearance. (Feb.) FYI: Herbert passed away last summer; a collection of previously untranslated poems is also due from Ecco in February (Forecasts, Dec. 21, 1998).
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting; 3.5 Stars,
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This review is from: The King of the Ants (Hardcover)
A short collection of ironic essays by the great poet Zbigniew Herbert. Each essay is an ironic re-telling of a Classical myth or story. Some include allegorical commentary on contemporary events. Generally quite clever and with some intermittently striking language. Not major works but enjoyable.
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Go read Mr. Cogito instead,
This review is from: The King of the Ants (Hardcover)
This is the first of Herbert's books I've read. I should probably have started with one of his more-acclaimed works. The essays in this book are urbane, literate, and ironic, but they're also extremely inconsistent. Though each is centered on a mythological figure, each jumps around a myriad of topics, only very casually touching on any of them.Often I felt his mythological inversions were facile or far-fetched to the point of being irritating - maybe they had been leavened with a humor that was lost in translation. What remains is a tone that seems academic, ponderous, and occasionally repetitive to me, like a lecturer who likes too well to listen to himself speak, and makes sweeping statements that seem, on scrutiny, to be a load of hooey - "Two gifts that rarely come in pairs and are therefore considered contradictory: beauty and strength. Beauty . . . is content with itself, sure of its own rights, and can ultimately dispense with confirmation, a contest or wreath. The beautiful lead a quiet life and are rarely entangled in dramatic adventures." Prettily put, but you could negate every sentiment and declare the result with just as much authority.
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