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kumipaul's review against another edition
2.0
Very nice writing is not enough to make up for largely uninteresting stories about historical people and places and events that I just couldn't care about. Some of it was fascinating, but most of Sebald's travels were filled with thoughts that I just couldn't connect with.
judi_ly's review against another edition
informative
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
alsira98's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Murder, Xenophobia, and Genocide
bookhouseboi's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Mal wieder auf jenen Holzwegen der Literatur unterwegs, auf denen sich bestätigt, dass eigentlich alles bloß Fragment ist.
Falls mich in den nächsten Monaten jemand sucht, ich spazieren durch die englische Küstenlandschaft und sinniere dort weiter über Literatur.
Falls mich in den nächsten Monaten jemand sucht, ich spazieren durch die englische Küstenlandschaft und sinniere dort weiter über Literatur.
tom_f's review against another edition
4.0
At length I bought a ticket for the Waterloo Panorama, housed in an immense domed rotunda, where from a raised platform in the middle one can view the battle — a favourite subject with panorama artists — in every direction. It is like being at the centre of events. On a sort of landscaped proscenium, immediately below the wooden rail amidst tree-stumps and undergrowth in the blood-stained sand, lie lifesize horses, and cut-down infantrymen, hussars and chevaux-légers, eyes rolling in pain or already extinguished. Their faces are moulded from wax but the boots, the leather belts, the weapons, the cuirasses, and the splendidly coloured uniforms, probably stuffed with eelgrass, rags and the like, are to all appearances authentic. Across this horrific three-dimensional scene, on which the cold dust of time has settled, one’s gaze is drawn to the horizon, to the enormous mural one hundred and ten yards by twelve, painted in 1912 by the French marine artist Louis Dumontin on the inner wall of the circus-like structure. This then, I thought, as I looked round about me, is the representation of history. It requires a falsification of perspective. We, the survivors, see everything from above, see everything at once, and still we do not know how it was. The desolate field extends all around where once fifty thousand soldiers and ten thousand horses met their end within a few hours. The night after the battle, the air must have been filled with death rattles and groans. Now there is nothing but the silent brown soil. Whatever became of the corpses and mortal remains? Are they buried under the memorial? Are we standing on a mountain of death? Is that our ultimate vantage point? Does one really have the much-vaunted historical overview from such a position?
marthadude's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.5
I’m not smart enough for this book