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W. G. Sebald.
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In the following review of Die Beschreibung des Unglücks, Swales faults Sebald's view of the literary critic as an interpreter of authorial pathology.
In his collection of ten essays [Di...
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In the following review, Howell-Jones commends Sebald's use of anecdotes, observations, and coincidences to impute a sense of orderliness to the process of worldly decay in The Rings of Saturn....
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In the following review, Morrison credits Sebald with an idiosyncratic style, melancholic perspective, and engaging storytelling in The Rings of Saturn.
This is one of the strangest books I've ...
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In the following review, Wood discusses what he considers Sebald's pessimistic aesthetic and preoccupation with death in The Rings of Saturn.
Anxious, daring, extreme, muted—only an annu...
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In the following review, Stow offers favorable comments on what he considers Sebald's mournful tone and unique narrative style in The Rings of Saturn.
W. G. Sebald, Professor of German at the U...
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In the following excerpt, Rundell praises Sebald's analysis of contemporary German theatre in A Radical Stage.
Although the word is gradually getting around in the United States that there is a...
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In the following review, Enright commends Sebald's “seductive” and “entrancing” writing in The Rings of Saturn, but finds his digressions occasionally dull and his m...
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In the following review, Roberson judges The Rings of Saturn favorably, asserting that it contains engaging intelligence and prose.
The narrator of The Rings of Saturn (who both is and is not W. G. Se...
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In the following review, Butler offers a positive assessment of Logis in einem Landhaus.
W. G. Sebald is a distinguished scholar (he holds a Chair of German in the University of East Anglia) and a nov...
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In the following review, Tate appreciates Sebald's preoccupation with historical memory and the continuing relevance of the past in The Rings of Saturn.
Although W. G. Sebald lives in Britain a...
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In the following review, Aciman contends that The Rings of Saturn, despite its ostensible interest in historical interconnections and cosmic coincidences, is a self-absorbed meditation with a flawed f...
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In the following review, Schwartz offers praise for Logis in einem Landhaus.
In a handsomely designed, tastefully printed, and creatively illustrated volume, six men who have enriched European culture...
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In the following review, Brookner admires Sebald's disquieting description of anxiety, displacement, and solitary travels in Vertigo.
A fine array of symptoms is on offer in Vertigo, the first ...
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In the following review, Sontag examines stylistic and thematic continuities in Sebald's literary works and offers a positive assessment of Vertigo.
Is literary greatness still possible? Given ...
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In the following review, Parks offers a positive evaluation of Vertigo and discusses Sebald's attention to coincidences and repetitions.
In the closing pages of Cervantes's masterpiece, ...
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In the following review, Dirda notes the critical acclaim Sebald has gathered, but finds Vertigo tenuously constructed and confusing for readers who do not enjoy Sebald's pessimistic European s...
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In the following review, Rosenfeld commends Sebald's insightful analysis in Unheimliche Heimat.
The subtitle of W. G. Sebald's book Unheimliche Heimat posits a distinct identity for Aust...
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In the following review, Landon offers a positive assessment of Vertigo.
The appearance in English of Sebald's first novel will be warmly greeted by those who know the two later books already t...
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In the following review, Krauss praises Sebald's distinctive, though elusive, authorial presence and storytelling in Vertigo.
Who is W. G. Sebald? Who is the enigmatic German writer who first a...
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In the following review, Annan praises the haunting blend of fact, fiction, and meditative digression by which Sebald conjures the past and its uncanny connections with the present.
On the cover photo...
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In the following excerpt, Reiter commends Sebald's sociological perspective and novelistic approach in Unheimliche Heimat, but finds shortcomings in the omission of female author Ilse Aichinger...
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In the following excerpt, Pettingell commends Sebald's depiction of suffering and the fallibility of human reason and memory in After Nature.
W. H. Auden's much-anthologized poem, ȁ...
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In the following review, Franklin discusses Sebald's authorial persona and tensions between fact and fiction in his writings, his portrayal of historical suffering and persecution in After Natu...
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In the following review, Gimson discusses Sebald's attempt in On the Natural History of Destruction to address the silence of German writers on the devastation inflicted by Allied bombings duri...
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In the following review, Winder discusses Sebald's peculiar, engaging literary style and his interest in the Allied bombardment of Germany in On the Natural History of Destruction.
A year ago l...
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In the following essay, Evans judges Sebald's writing to be unrealistic and withdrawn, citing the author's preoccupation with illness and scenes without people as evidence of his empty d...
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In the following review, Davis offers a positive assessment of After Nature.
After Nature, Sebald's first work, published after his death (but with his imprimateur), is a blueprint of the theme...
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Critical Review by Martin Swales
