On the Natural History of Destruction 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by W.G. Sebald (Author),‎ Anthea Bell (Translator)

26 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0375504846

ISBN-10: 0375504842

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W.G. Sebald completed this extraordinary and important -- and already controversial -- book before his untimely death in December 2001.

On the Natural History of Destruction is W.G. Sebald’s harrowing and precise investigation of one of the least examined “silences” of our time. In it, the acclaimed novelist examines the devastation of German cities by Allied bombardment, and the reasons for the astonishing absence of this unprecedented trauma from German history and culture.

This void in history is in part a repression of things -- such as the death by fire of the city of Hamburg at the hands of the RAF -- too terrible to bear. But rather than record the crises about them, writers sought to retrospectively justify their actions under the Nazis. For Sebald, this is an example of deliberate cultural amnesia; his analysis of its effects in and outside Germany has already provoked angry and painful debate.

Sebald’s incomparable novels are rooted in meticulous observation; his essays are novelistic. They include his childhood recollections of the war that spurred his horror at the collective amnesia around him. There are moments of black humour and, throughout, the unmatched sensitivity of Sebald’s intelligence. This book is a vital study of suffering and forgetting, of the morality hidden in artistic decisions, and of both compromised and genuine heroics.

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Product details

File Size: 4972 KB
Print Length: 226 pages
Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (February 11, 2003)
Publication Date: February 11, 2003
Language: English
ASIN: B004SOVAD0
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Not Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #619,781 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #299 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Regional & Cultural > European > German
- #592 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > European > German
- #797 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Europe > Germany

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Lewis M.

Till We Forget.

May 3, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is perhaps the most intriguing discussions' of the WW II Allied bombing campaign and the German reaction to it I have ever read. The essays on the authors who wrote in the shadow of the war were perhaps the most intriguing parts of the book for the depth and complexity of literary analysis.
One is left with a deep anxiety for our incapacity to process the direct experience of war and political terror and a deeply ambiguous wonder at the way articulate people managed it. God help the rest.

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larry

just as good as his "Fiction"

March 31, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

love everything this man has written and Natural History is no exception.

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DowNow

Heavy Psychology

January 10, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

perfect book for nazi-ophiles

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Old fashion lady

Five Stars

August 12, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Interesting investigation based on literature.

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gioconda

I was seeking a detailed account of what happened to ...

August 29, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I was seeking a detailed account of what happened to people in Germany during the conclusion of WW2. There is some of that here, and it is very moving. But there is also much hand-wringing over the reluctance of German writers to confront the issues raised by the war. This part, which amounts to a literary criticism, is only slightly helpful to my understanding of a people confronted by extraordinary destruction, and a defeat that cast a shadow of guilt over their immense suffering.

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Not much of a book

August 23, 2007

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This very slight volume consists of about 100 pages of an interesting set of lectures on the subject of why there hadn't been much written in contemporary German literature on the subject of the destruction of German cities by aerial bombing in World War II. It's a very interesting topic but the lectures pre-date the publication of "Der Brand" ("The Fire") by Joerg Friedrich which I imagine makes Sebald's earlier lectures somewhat obsolete.

The lectures are somewhat interesting read in conjunction with Gunther Grass' very disappointing and confusing "Peeling the Onion" although Sebald doesn't refer to Grass' work anywhere in this book.

The rest of the book is padded out with three short essays on two German writers and one German artist who are mostly unknown outside of the German-speaking world. I majored in German literature as an undergraduate in the 70's but don't think I had ever heard of Alfred Andersch, or if I had, I had completely forgotten about him. The essay on Peter Weiss, an artist of some kind, is particularly obtuse without any illustrations accompanying the text.

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William Kincheloe

Essays that yield a view from the "other side."

November 23, 2012

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From the first essay that decries the destruction wreaked on German cities by the RAF and the USAAF, I found little evidence that the author recognized -- until late in the publication -- that the destruction was a massive retaliation for the "Blitz" of England. Those of us who lived through the reduction of Coventry and the elimination of Dresden (to name two locations) read the essays as confirming the resilience of people. Both episodes proved the ineffectiveness of the "blitz" and the "carpet bombing." But the writing was turgid Teutonic and not easy for modern Americans to deal with!

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Alex K.

A history of post-traumatic silence

June 18, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The book consists of four parts with a foreword. Part one, taking up half of the volume, deals with the Allied bombings and a strangely muted response to that disaster in post-war Germany, both in private conversations and printed literature. I would recommend this part to anyone. It makes clear the extent of the destruction, but only as a prerequisite for the study of the silence that followed. Sebald looks into different ways Germans blocked out the trauma of the air war while rebuilding the country, and draws parallels between the raging fires of 1943-45 and apocalyptic reveries of German expressionists. Sebald concludes with a review of letters he received from German readers in response to his lectures.

Part two is a story of a German fiction writer, Alfred Andersch, who tried to relive his life more virtuously, and less cowardly, through his fiction. Parts three and four deal with work by Jean Améry, Sebald's mentor, and Peter Weiss, well known for his play Marat/Sade and less so for his three-volume novel, "The Aesthetics of Resistance." Améry's subjects - torture, pain, limitations to one's humanity - won't make for easy reading but I think I'm going to try as some of his work is available in English. As for Weiss, only one volume of his "Aesthetics" has been translated, unfortunately.

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Most recent customer reviews

Uninteresting, boring

Sebald's collection of a series of post WWII lectures he gave comparing his own perceived ideological and philosophical pertinence on the theme of Allied bombing of German...Read more

Published 10 months ago

irma dickinson

You understand the German side of the Second World War ...

You understand the German side of the Second World War. We always get the side of the Allies; this is different. A MUST. IRMA DICKINSON

Published 1 year ago

George Rubin

A remarkable writer and historian who died to young. ...

A remarkable writer and historian who died to young. I have a history with Sebald in that I was shot down, with my bomber crew, during World War !!Read more

Published 1 year ago

Christopher Junker

An excellent addition to the discussion of difficulty of writing about the unspeakable

I am rereading all of WG Sebald, one of my favorite authors, starting with this for reasons passing understanding.Read more

Published on December 19, 2014

Steiner

Fine, though lacking in many ways

W.G. Sebald's posthumously published collection of essays and lectures is a provocative, albeit pedantic investigation of German post-war historiography.Read more

Published on November 28, 2010

Timothy Mckibben

w. g. sebald

subtle, interesting and disturbing book from a viewpoint seldom encountered in America; author deserves to be better known

Published on July 22, 2008

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