Notes from Hampstead: The Writer's Notes: 1954-1971 - Paperback

by Elias Canetti (Author), John Hargraves (Translator)

Notes from Hampstead is a map of the late Nobel laureate's thinking, a triumphant compendium of aphoristic, enigmatic, and expository writings covering a characteristically diverse range of subjects.

Canetti is a meticulous writer, and in reading his notes, one can easily see him hovering over a just formed sentence, pencil in hand, wondering whether to cut or to add or to leave well enough alone. - Publishers Weekly

Back Jacket

Notes from Hampstead is a map to the late Nobel laureate's thinking, a triumphant compendium of aphoristic, enigmatic, and expository writings covering a characteristically diverse range of subjects: the significance of mythology and ethnicity, the nature of creativity, the extraordinary hold violence has on the twentieth century, literary history (one learns of Canetti's affection for Cervantes, Stendhal, and Gogol, and his adoration of Kafka), and, always, there is a fierce quarrel with death. Canetti draws on the troubled period following the death of his wife and the publication of his masterwork of social theory, Crowds and Power. An ambivalent interest in spiritualism also characterizes the collection: Canetti's conversations with Jesuits and Indian gurus, and his readings of Greek, Hebrew, and primitive myths give a kaleidoscopic view of the uses and abuses of religion.

Author Biography

Elias Canetti was born in 1905 into a Sephardi Jewish family in Ruse, Bulgaria. He moved to Vienna in 1924, where he became involved in literary circles while studying for a degree in chemistry. He remained in Vienna until the Anschluss, when he emigrated to England and later to Switzerland, where he died in 1994. In 1981, Canetti was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for "writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas, and artistic power." His books include Crowds and Powers, Auto-da-Fe, and a trilogy of memoirs.