Customer Reviews

Twilight of the Wagners: The Unveiling of a Family's Legacy

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This was a crashing disappointment on several fronts. Gottfried Wagner is in a unique position to dish major dirt on the Bayreuth Wagner clan, yet he inexplicably chooses to focus the center of attention on himself. The problem is that Gottfried is not especially likeable or interesting and suffers from a case of self-absorption unequalled in recent history. He repeatedly drones on about how he was persecuted and ignored by his father, misunderstood by the other Wagners and shunted aside for no good reason. Ho hum.

The second disappointment is that this book was marketed as containing many "new" revelations about Hitler and his relationship with Wagner grandmother Winifred. Notice that Hitler is featured prominently on the cover of the book, flanked by Wieland and Wolfgang. Gottfried again could have provided fascinating, new glimpses into Winifred, who was a fanatic, but at least a fascinating woman. This was an opportunity for Gottfried to unearth new tid-bits relating to Hitler's annual Bayreuth pilgrimages, his relationships with Verena, Friedilind and the Wagner boys, but... again, he drops the ball. There is very little new material offered here.

The writing style is unedifying, perhaps the fault of the translator, but to sum up: not worth your time.

A major disappointment. There are some very well-written books on the Wagner family and their well-known links to Hitler. We know they loved the guy. We know they crossed their fingers and did what they could to get through de-nazification after the war. So when you open Gottfried's little tell-all, you hope for some insights from the other side of the walls at Wahnfried. But what you find adds absolutely nothing to what is known about the Wagner crowd and their love affair with der fuehrer.

That our reading public seems fascinated with celebrity biographies about childhood abuse is sad enough. When a non-celebrity non-entity from the Wagner family who happens nonetheless to be a direct descendent from the composer actually finds a publisher to print one of these trashy tomes (shame on you Picador Books), we have truly entered a new level in book-publishing.

I deeply regret adding to global warming by buying this thing. This copy of Gottfried's whiny little book won't even be donated to the local library.

Apart from some gossipy behind-the-scenes tidbits about the Wagners, this tedious book has little to offer. The author provides no insights at all into either Richard Wagner or even the author's family. There is little here that we did not already know from other sources: Wolfgang Wagner is a power-obsessed despot, for example. Winifred was an unrepentant Nazi and a virulent anti-semite. Who doesn't know that?

Most of this book appears to be the author's attempt to (a) settle old scores, particularly against family members, and (b) publicly atone for his sense of personal guilt at being a member of the Wagner family. Very little of what is in here merited publication. Gottfried comes across as whiny, self-indulgent, and not a little self-righteous. His recurrent theme is, "Everybody Hates Me, Nobody Loves Me, I Think I'll Go Out And Eat Worms."

Don't waste your time on this one.

I wish I had read the other reviews of this ponderous whinethon before I spent the money or more importantly the time enduring it. I had heard the author interviewed on NPR several times, and he is reasonably interesting in an interview. He is, however, an apallingly bad writer. This should have been pretty compelling stuff, but Gottfried Wagner has managed to turn it into an almost unending diatribe with repetitive and uninteresting details about his family's conflicts. There is also an uncomfortably consistent thread of self promotion present throughout most of his longwinded tales of his exodus from Bayreuth.

While I can appreciate his angst over discovering the dark secrets of his family background, he could have covered that territory in a lot less time and paper. If you want to read a fascinating book and one that will give you a far better idea of what growing up in Nazi Germany was really like, try "Stones From the River". It, unlike this lump, is brilliant.

Based on a CSPAN interview with Gottfried Wagner I expected a lot more from this book, especially since Dr. Wagner was motivated to embark on writing this book based on talk he gave at my alma mater, Richard Stockton College of NJ. Anyway, I really thought I would gain some insight to how a family, entwined in Hitler's inner cultural circle, deals with its past. Simply, they deny it. But do we need 300 pages of whining about how "daddy never loved me?" I think not. This is self-indulgence at its worst. Gottfried Wagner goes on and on about just how sensitive he is, and how most of the world just doesn't understand the horror of the holocaust. Not to mention his excusing all of the atheist Nietzche's part in German thought and process in the 1920's, 30's and 40's. So who doesn't know that Richard Wagner was an anti-semite? I love his music, I hate the man, but then again that can be said for a lot of famous artists. The horror of the Holocaust is still with us today. One need only look at the persecution of Bahai's in Iran, Christians in Sudan, and religious people of all sorts in the People's Republic of China. Only the groups have changed, the thugs are still with us. We've learned nothing, and TWILIGHT OF THE WAGNERS doesn't provide the reader with any new insights. There is nothing new here, don't waste your time.

I've never seen a book backfire the way that this one does. Gottfried Wagner wants the reader to sympathize with his position, to feel the suffering of his terrible childhood, and to blame Gottfried's father Wolfgang for all of these woes. What actually happens is that Gottfried comes off as a whiner who blames everyone else (loudly and viciously) for his failures and who wrenches his arm patting himself on the back for his few, really rather undistinguished successes. The first fifth of the book is a fairly interesting "behind the scenes" look at Bayreuth in the 1950s. The rest of the book is an embarrassing rant. I was surprised to find this book offered by various vendors on Amazon for literally $.02. I now realize that you truly do get what you pay for. My respect for the challenges that Wolfgang Wagner has overcome increased tremendously as I read this book.

Rambling and often disjointed, Twilight of the Wagners (a clever pun on Götterdämmerung - Twilight of the Gods) is more, much more, than the self-proclaimed "unveiling of a family`s legacy" that it is. From Hitler to Hess to the Wagner tribe to von Karajan to Furtwängler, they`re all here - all the great actors on the stage of History who, out of patriotism or madness, played a more than casual role in what was to be one of the defining moments of the 20th century. Like ghosts from the past, they are called up and made to act out their roles with sometimes convincing color and life throughout the pages of this book.

Although Gottfried Wagner is to be praised for unveiling his family`s legacy, the reader cannot help but wonder if this is really the mea culpa - the final exorcism of anti-semitic ghosts throughout no less than three generations - that it is meant to be. After reading it, you come away with the feeling that, beneath all the history, there is a razor-sharp undercurrent of bitterness and an overwhelming desire to prove that "I`m good; they`re bad."

Too, this book does not really unveil a dark legacy - it rips the mouldering shrouds off quite a few corpses; corpses that it might have been better to leave quietly buried. Closet doors fly open, and skeletons - some over a century old, others quite new - come tumbling merrily out. In other words, it doesn`t unveil a legacy, it spills the beans. Written in an almost conversational tone, the impression that it gives is that this is a prolixic, disjointed confession - one tinged with personal impressions but lacking the satisfying basis of empirical fact-finding and research.

Regrettably, the very thing that would make this an enjoyable book - its first-person narrative and conversational style - is also what makes it a rather tedious book to read. Equally regrettable is the fact that there is a distinctive self-promoting slant to the book. Regardless, it makes for an enjoyable first reading - although it probably won`t tempt you back for a second dose, and the historical anecdotes it contains are more than enough to whet the appetite of those researchers searching for the distinctively domestic touch that most treatises on the Third Reich lack.

Unlike the other reviews read here I found this book to be most compelling. The story of a man of a famous family trying to come to terms with himself, his family and society. How difficult it must be for persons born of a family despised by the world, hated for documented emotional outbursts of the most virulent kind. Gottfried Wagner is a man who is trying so hard to find a way to redeem himself in the eyes of society. I for one admire him immensely and found his book to be absolutely fascinating. Reading about the inner story of the Wagner family in the most open way is so revealing of the character of this family. He hides nothing. While I am sure he would never think of himself that way he is a man of the highest level of integrity. I am sure he will find the anwers to his dilemna. If you are a Wagner fan, read it you'll love it.

I was originally put off by this book because of the bad reviews it received here; but when I saw it in a bookstore, I picked it up and started reading. I didn't want to stop. To me, it was fascinating and I knew without a doubt that I would purchase it.

I'm glad I read it, and feel good about recommending it to others.

Conceptually, the book appears interesting because it deals with author Gottfried Wagner's past and continuing struggle to shed himself of the Wagner reputation. In short, Gottfried Wagner's family was closely affiliated with Adolf Hitler and held an annual festival at which the family and other adoring attendants would commemorate and put on productions of composer Richard Wagner's operas. Richard Wagner was a very vocal and comtemptuous anti-Semite, and through the years Gottfied Wagner found out his family's affiliation and therefore wanted to persue his own identity. Essentially, he was the black sheep of said family.

However fascinating the overall idea sounds, the book itself is not an easy read in terms of aesthetic value. While the writing in itself is competantly executed, it is not the style of writing that really draws in the reader. In other words, the book reads more like a technical manual as opposed to the emotionally-driven memoir it believes itself to be. I had to read this book for my Sophomore year of college in my Music and Holocaust class and I was unable to finish it. There was nothing particularly enjoyable about the book and, in short, was boring to an uncomfortable extent. I only recommend it to those who have insomnia or for those who have never been bored and would like a taste of the experience.