Elias Canetti - Nobel Prize in Literature, 1981 (5 books)

ELIAS CANETTI (1905-1994) was a German language author, born in Bulgaria, and later a British citizen. He was a modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981 "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power."

The modernist novel AUTO-DA-FÉ (1946) places Canetti squarely in the ranks of modern European writers such as Robert Musil and Hermann Broch. It is the story of Peter Kien, a middle-aged scholarly recluse who lives among and for his great library. The fall of Kien through the instrument of the illiterate, brutish housekeeper he marries constitutes the plot of the book. Ultimately, his marriage -- intended to protect both himself and his library -- destroys them instead, in the conflagration alluded to by the English-language title. Salman Rushdie called it "remorseless" and "one of the most terrifying literary worlds of the century."

CROWDS AND POWER (1960) is one of the 20th century's most original works of social psychology, explaining in concise and highly metaphoric language how people form mobs and manipulate power. Canetti explores the interplay between crowds and power, crowds and human behaviour, crowds and history. He describes open and closed crowds, invisible crowds, baiting crowds, feast crowds and "double" crowds. His exploration takes the reader to the rain dances of the Pueblo Indians, to the Muharram Festival of the Shiites, to the finger exercises of monkeys; but at the same time it leads toward a better, if startling, understanding of ourselves and the human condition.

(Both of the above titles were previously uploaded by me and have been completely reprocessed for inclusion in this collection.)

THE VOICES OF MARRAKESH (1968) is a unique travel book that presents vivid images of daily life among Marrakesh’s bewildering array of voices, gestures and faces. In a series of sharply etched scenes, Canetti portrays the languages and cultures of the people who fill its bazaars, cafes, and streets.

EARWITNESS (1974) consists of 50 short chapters with such fanciful headings as "The Paper-Drunkard," "The Never-Must," and "The Earwitness," in which Canetti describes each specimen of psychological aberration with the kind of mock-serious generality one might find in an astrology book.

THE SECRET HEART OF THE CLOCK (1987) is a highly personal testimonial of what Canetti himself chooses to term "notations," bits and pieces: notes, aphorisms, fragments. Taken together, they present a tender, guiltily gloomy meditation on death and aging.


The following books are in PDF format unless otherwise indicated:

* AUTO-DA-FÉ (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984). Translated by C. V. Wedgwood. -- PDF + ePUB

* CROWDS AND POWER (Continuum, 1978). Translated by Carol Stewart.

* EARWITNESS: Fifty Characters (Continuum, 1979). Translated by Joachim Neugroschel.

* THE SECRET HEART OF THE CLOCK: Notes, Aphorisms, Fragments 1973-1985 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989). Translated by Joel Agee.

* THE VOICES OF MARRAKESH (Marion Boyars, 1982). Translated by J. A. Underwood.