Auto-da-fé

Collection "L' imaginaire".

"Auto-da-fé" is the only novel by the German-language writer Elias Canetti, Nobel Prize winner for literature. Published in Vienna in 1935 under the title Die Blendung (The Blind), it was first published in France in 1949 under the title La Tour de Babel (The Tower of Babel) and won the prize for Best Foreign Book, before being translated again and published by Gallimard in 1968 under the title Auto-da-fé".

Translation from German by Paule ARHEX.

Abstract: "Auto-da-fé mainly tells the story of a scholarly sinologist, Peter Kien, whose life is devoted to study and who has only a passion for books. His apartment is a huge library with 25,000 volumes. Kien can't leave his house without taking some books with him. He only goes out for one hour a day, in the morning. He is considered a world specialist, even if he refuses to participate in any colloquium. He lives contentedly, until he marries his maid, Therese, who turns out to be a despicable person, ready to do anything for money, even to sell her husband's books when she manages to drive him out of his home. Then there's Fischerle, a dwarf crook, a chess enthusiast, who will take Kien under his protection to steal him, and Benedikt Pfaff, the janitor, a former policeman whose only mode of expression is violence."