Eumeswil (The Eridanos Library) (Hardcover)

~ Ernst Junger (Author), Joachim Neugroschel (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set sometime in the future, after the world government has splintered into city-states, German novelist Junger's murky and digressive dystopian fantasy features Martin Venator, night steward of the Casbah of Eumeswil, citadel-stronghold of a tyrant known as "the Condor." Venator rationalizes his subservience to the dictator by thinking of himself as an "anarch," a man with no ties to state or society. Unlike the anarchist, dedicated to fighting authority, the anarch "plays his own game" within the framework of established rules. When not seeking sexual comfort with his pupil, Ingrid, or with waterfront whore Latifah, Venator uses a time machine to replay historical events and to conjure up 3-D images of famous anarchists. Meanwhile, Ingrid uses the device to research "the Goldfinch Plan," an alternative to Zionist nationalism by which various countries will lease or donate tiny territories that will allow the Jewish people to exist as a seafaring network. Junger (b. 1895) is perhaps best known for opposing the Nazi regime through his bestselling roman a clef, On the Marble Cliffs (1939). In this acute if labyrinthine study of a compromised individual, he telescopes past and present, playing over the sweep of Western history and culture with a dazzling range of allusions from Homer and Nero to Poe and Lenin, displaying his erudition but failing to ignite the reader's engaged interest.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This dystopian work, originally published in Germany in 1977, is set in a small city-state in the future and narrated by a young historian and servant of the ruling tyrant, the Condor. With minimal plot and character development, Eumeswil is unsatisfying as a novel but fascinating as an apologia pro sua vita . Junger, born in 1895, forged his political ideas in the same cauldron in which fascism was wrought, and he was one of the very few major Weimar-era authors to continue writing and publishing in Nazi Germany. The novel explores the character of the anarch , whose dispassionate stance allows him to serve any state without being corrupted by it. Speaking for a discredited philosophy, Junger can startle his readers with arguments against equality, universal education, and the democratic state while advocating such things as mercenary armies and the gold standard. General readers as well as specialists in the era should consider.
- Michael T. O'Pecko, Towson State Univ., Md.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Marsilio Publishers (April 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941419975
• ISBN-13: 978-0941419970
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,571,891 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Juenger's novel, March 19, 2000

By A Customer

Jünger is one of the most important writers of this century. A mix of Goethe, Hamann and Novalis on one hand, and of Chamfort,Joubert and the french moralist on the other. Soldier in both wars, friend of Heidegger, Brecht, Cioran and Scholem, scientist and writer, his life is alsmots as interesting as his books. Unfortunaly his best book, his private journal from the II Wolrd War has not been translated into English.Anyway, Eumeswil is an excellent science -fiction novel with heavy philosophycal backgrounds, mostly Nietzche, Heidegger, german romantics and Oswald Spengler.Juenger died two years ago when he was 102 years old.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A survival guide, May 29, 2001

By A Customer

This book takes the form of the ruminations of Manuel Venator, a bartender for a minor tyrant who rules a North African town sometime in the future. The writing style is fantastic. The otherworldly quality of what is being described is emphasized by the prose style, which is very matter-of-fact.

More than a fantasy or science fiction work, this is a fictionalized description of what it is to be an anarch (not to be confused with an anarchist), which is essentially one who is disengaged from his surroundings and operates under the maxim "non serviam" while not making any attempt to alter or destroy the power structure, understanding that to do so would be to only risk making things worse. In a sense, this is really an updated form of Epictetus' stoicism. This book can perhaps be seen as an Enchiridion for the third millenium.

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Philospohical ruminations in a fictional setting., September 29, 1999

By A Customer

Eumeswil has no easily discernable narrative, but rather a series of almost-episodes that trigger a series of philospohical ruminations by Martin Venator, the narrator. He observes power but removes himself from it, describing himself as an anarch, responsible no one but himself, not judging history or individuals. In doing so, he ends up serving the Condor as both a barkeep and as a collaborator. Our narrator doesn't see that by standing aside from autocracy, he enables its perpetuation. He would rather spend hours in front of a historical simulation device called the luminar and working to create a little refuge in a nearby river delta, indicative of his remove from the world around him. Not an "airplane book" by any means, but worthwhile as a glimpse as to how intellect can convince itself to serve power.