
Books in series

#2
Melancholy II
1996
Not so much a sequel as an alternate perspective, Jon Fosse's coda to his brilliant and much-lauded Melancholy picks up the story of tormented landscape painter Lars Hertervig in 1902, shortly after his death. Taking place, like Melancholy, over the course of a single day, it treats us to the thoughts of Hertervig's sister, carrying on with her life in the absence of her eccentric brother. She recalls their childhood under a domineering father, remembering Hertervig's difficulties fitting in, and likewise Hertervig the man: poors, always hovering on the brink, fanatical about painting and his own perceived shortcomings as an artist and human being. In the same hypnotic prose for which Fosse is famous, Melancholy II serves as an investigation not only into the "collateral damage" wrought by art and artists, but into a master's tools and obsessions as well.

#1-2
Melancholia
1995
Il protagonista del dittico Melancholia è Lars Hertervig, uno dei più grandi nomi della pittura norvegese e nordica ottocentesca. Dopo aver svolto gli studi a Dusseldorf comincia a soffrire di disturbi nervosi e viene internato in un ospedale psichiatrico. Distrutto, vive di elemosina fino alla morte. Jon Fosse, nel tentativo di cogliere la luce che illumina le tele dell'artista, con stile conciso e acre - una sorta di minimalismo furioso - fa rivivere il crudele martirio di Hertervig in due monologhi interiori densi di una scrittura avvolgente, ricca di corrispondenze, ritmata, e sviluppa fino all'angoscia l'ossessione amorosa, intrecciandola all'irrefrenabile volontà creativa del pittore. "Melancholia" ha avuto ottimo riscontro in numerosi paesi e in particolare in Francia, dove è stato pubblicato dieci anni fa in due volumi e dove è diventato opera di culto. Al centro della tessitura che usa la figura stilistica della variazione, con una concezione spesso musicale del periodare, sta la vita di Lars Hertervig, presentato nell'ultima giornata della sua esistenza, prima del suicidio avvenuto in una città tedesca inospitale e tetra alla metà dell'Ottocento forse per cause d'amore, o forse per una più generale e totale incapacità di vivere.
Author

Jon Fosse
Author · 28 books
Jon Olav Fosse was born in Haugesund, Norway and currently lives in Bergen. He debuted in 1983 with the novel Raudt, svart (Red, black). His first play, Og aldri skal vi skiljast, was performed and published in 1994. Jon Fosse has written novels, short stories, poetry, children's books, essays and plays. His works have been translated into more than forty languages. He is widely considered as one of the world's greatest contemporary playwrights. Fosse was made a chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite of France in 2007.[1] Fosse also has been ranked number 83 on the list of the Top 100 living geniuses by The Daily Telegraph.[2] Since 2011, Fosse has been granted the Grotten, an honorary residence owned by the Norwegian state and located on the premises of the Royal Palace in the city centre of Oslo. The Grotten is given as a permanent residence to a person specifically bestowed this honour by the King of Norway for their contributions to Norwegian arts and culture.