Rock Crystal

Rock Crystal

by Adalbert Stifter
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date: 15/12/2015

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Seemingly the simplest of stories—a passing anecdote of village life— Rock Crystal opens up into a tale of almost unendurable suspense. This jewel-like novella by the writer that Thomas Mann praised as "one of the most extraordinary, the most enigmatic, the most secretly daring and the most strangely gripping narrators in world literature" is among the most unusual, moving, and memorable of Christmas stories. Two children—Conrad and his little sister, Sanna—set out from their village high up in the Alps to visit their grandparents in the neighboring valley. It is the day before Christmas but the weather is mild, though of course night falls early in December and the children are warned not to linger. The grandparents welcome the children with presents and pack them off with kisses. Then snow begins to fall, ever more thickly and steadily. Undaunted, the children press on, only to take a wrong turn. The snow rises higher and higher, time passes: it is deep night when the sky clears and Conrad and Sanna discover themselves out on a glacier, terrifying and beautiful, the heart of the void. Adalbert Stifter's rapt and enigmatic tale, beautifully translated by Elizabeth Mayer and Marianne Moore, explores what can be found between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day—or on any night of the year.

ISBN:
9781681370538
9781681370538
Category:
Fiction
Format:
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date:
15-12-2015
Language:
English
Publisher:
New York Review Books
Adalbert Stifter

Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868) was an Austrian writer, painter and poet closely associated with the Biedermeier movement in European art. Following his studies at the University of Vienna, he worked as a tutor for aristocratic families before becoming a supervisor of elementary schools. He is particularly renowned for the vivid descriptions of natural landscapes in his writing, and has been celebrated by both German and English writers including Rainer Maria Rilke, Thomas Mann, W.G. Sebald, W.H. Auden and Herman Hesse.

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