The Death of Virgil (Der Tod des Vergil) is a novel originally written in German by the Austrian author Hermann Broch. The English translation, and an edition in German, were both published in 1945. The stream of consciousness and complex literary allusions in the novel were influenced by the modernist style of James Joyce.
This great, difficult novel, in which reality and hallucination, poetry and prose are inextricably mingled, reenacts the las...
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The Death of Virgil (Der Tod des Vergil) is a novel originally written in German by the Austrian author Hermann Broch. The English translation, and an edition in German, were both published in 1945. The stream of consciousness and complex literary allusions in the novel were influenced by the modernist style of James Joyce.
This great, difficult novel, in which reality and hallucination, poetry and prose are inextricably mingled, reenacts the last hours of life of the Roman poet Virgil, in the port of Brundisium (Brindisi), where he accompanied Augustus, his decision – frustrated by the emperor – to burn his Aeneid, and his final reconciliation with his destiny. Virgil's heightened perceptions as he dies recall his life and the age in which he lives. The poet is in the interval between life to death, just as his culture hangs between the pagan and Christian eras. As he reflects, Virgil recognises that history is at a cusp and that he may have falsified reality in his attempt to create...
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