The Agony of Flies
1992
First Published
3.53
Average Rating
174
Number of Pages
Elias Canetti, winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature, here offers a quintessential selection from the wealth of his short writings. Remarkable for their uncommon candor and originality, these flashes of thought illuminate a half century of Canetti's existential and intellectual development. By turns enigmatic and profound, anguished and humorous, Canetti's concentrated reflections reveal his grand themes - the mystery of love, the meaninglessness of history, the ambiguity of language, the problem of power, mankind's savagery toward other living creatures. Canetti's hatred of dogma, his passionate protest against aging and death stand out with unparalleled clarity, as does the deep ethical awareness at the core of his creativity. An autobiography stripped bare, a self-portrait of a mind, The Agony of Flies, presented in a bilingual edition, provides privileged insight into the life and thought of "one of our great imaginers and solitary men of genius" (Iris Murdoch).
Avg Rating
3.53
Number of Ratings
177
5 STARS
23%
4 STARS
29%
3 STARS
31%
2 STARS
13%
1 STARS
5%
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Author
Elias Canetti
Author · 21 books
Awarded the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power." He studied in Vienna. Before World War II he moved with his wife Veza to England and stayed there for long time. Since late 1960s he lived in London and Zurich. In late 1980s he started to live in Zurich permanently. He died in 1994 in Zurich. Author of Auto-da-Fé, Party in the Blitz, Crowds and Power, and The Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a Visit
