Hermann Broch

Hannah Arendt who wrote an essay on Broch in her great work of intellectual portraits "Men in Dark Times" spoke of him as a 'poet in spite of himself." This is a reference to the fact that Broch's great intellectual ambitions were in the world of social thought, in his work on mass psychology, in his program for 'total democracy'. But as Schlant points out in this excellent overall introduction to his work it is for two great novels, " The Sleepwalkers" and "The Death of Vergil" that Broch is considered of great importance. Schlant tells the story of how Broch who unlike Kafka went into the family business began his intellectual career relatively late, but achieved true renown and recognition in his own time. One moving humane chapter in Broch's life, is when he assisted German Jewish refugees in coming to America. And this though Broch, born Jewish had in his early twenties converted to Christianity. The tale of Broch's last years in America is one in which he continued to struggle heroically in his creative efforts, but never achieved for his 'social thought' the kind of transformative effect on reality that he dreamed. It is his deeply poetic and mysterious 'fiction' which most often bring readers to his work today.

Ms. Schlant's admiration and care for Broch's books comes through her detailed exploration of Broch and his writing in a very readable and enjoyable way. I've owned this book for years and, as I also enjoy Broch, I refer to it often. She does not dissect his writing, but serves as more of an intermediary to a better understanding of what Broch was trying to accomplish and brings us, perhaps, a bit closer to Broch's thought process (his essays will serve you well there). The biographical is well integrated within the discussions of his writings, and his life was enough of a story itself to bring further interest to this book. In closing, if I might, I'll leave you with the first two sentences of Michael P. Steinberg's forward: "Hermann Broch was a man of many genres. If his novels, plays, stories, and political and philosophical writings can be said to share a single theme, that theme is the limits of human consciousness in a politically saturated world."