Old Masters - (Phoenix Fiction) by Thomas Bernhard (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In this exuberantly satirical novel, the tutor Atzbacher has been summoned by his friend Reger to meet him in a Viennese museum. While Reger gazes at a Tintoretto portrait, Atzbacher--who fears Reger's plans to kill himself--gives us a portrait of the musicologist: his wisdom, his devotion to his wife, and his love-hate relationship with
art. With characteristically acerbic wit, Bernhard exposes the pretensions and aspirations of humanity in a novel at once pessimistic and strangely exhilarating.

"Bernhard's . . . most enjoyable novel."--Robert Craft, New York Review of Books.

"Bernhard is one of the masters of contemporary European fiction."--George Steiner

From the Back Cover

In this exuberantly satirical novel, the tutor Atzbacher has been summoned by his friend Reger to meet in a Viennese museum. While Reger gazes at a Tintoretto portrait, Atzbacher--who fears Reger's plans to kill himself--gives us a portrait of the musicologist: his wisdom, his devotion to his wife, and his love-hate relationship with art. With characteristically acerbic wit, Bernhard exposes the pretensions and aspirations of humanity in a novel at once pessimistic and strangely exhilarating.

Review Quotes

"Thomas Bernhard might be the perfect novelist for our moment . . . . Old Masters is Bernhard at his most tender, and at his most incisive."--Ed Winstead "BOMB Magazine"

About the Author

Widely acclaimed as a novelist, playwright, and poet, Thomas Bernhard (1931-89) won many of the most prestigious literary prizes of Europe, including the Austrian State Prize, the Bremen and Brüchner prizes, and Le Prix Séguier.