annotated source 02.17

Selections from:

Sebald, W.G. The Emigrants. New York: New Directions, 1996. Print.

Sebald, W.G. The Rings of Saturn. New York: New Directions, 1999. Print.

Sebald is unique in the essaying world. His books combine nonfiction with imagination that encroaches on fiction; in fact, The Emigrants is categorized as a novel, although it clearly chronicles his experiences and encounters. The Rings of Saturn begins with Sebald in the hospital, having experienced a breakdown after his experience with the walking tour that informed his book. His prose is dizzying and very stream of consciousness, so it's a lot different than many of the essayists I've studied up to this point. However, Montaigne was very stream of consciousness (though the phrase hadn't been coined in the 16th century), as well as Virginia Woolf.

In The Emigrants, Sebald has four main, longer essays that each focus on a different German in exile--the first essay, which is the only one I've read at length so far, isn't just a biography, but an encounter. Sebald interacts with the person he's characterizing, and all in all it's a very good example of what can be done with another person's story. This is one thing I would love to emulate--how to take another person's story and tell it in a meditative and completely different way. Completely different.

One more thing: Sebald is German, although he lived in England for much of his life and is buried in Norfolk county. He wrote in German, though, so his essays are translated from German.