French Literature Reviews - 2026

Thomas Bernhard: Prose Works (1971-1982), Quarto Series
Comparative and World Literature

Thomas Bernhard

PROSE WORKS (1971-1982)

Three Days - The Basement - The Breath - The Cold -
A Child - Walking - Yes - The Imitator - Gargoyles -
Wittgenstein's Nephew - Interview with André Müller
translated from German by Jean-Claude Hémery, Éliane Kaufholz,
Albert Kohn and Claude Porcell
Preface by Jean-Marie Winckler, introduction by Bernard Lortholary.

Gallimard
Quarto Series
27-04-2007
952 pages
25.00 €
ISBN 9782070783724.

Publisher's overview:
"Yes, I am constantly shocked. Just read my books, they are a piling-up of millions of shocks. It is a sequence not just of sentences, but of shock impressions. A book must also be a shock, a shock that is not visible from the outside," Thomas Bernhard declares in a 1986 interview, which he titled *The Origin is Myself*. At the same time, he hands the reader of this collection of prose works—gathered here around five autobiographical books—the master key that, from shock to shock, terror to terror, and hell to hell, unlocks Pandora's box of an author who nonetheless remains thoroughly of a piece: the imprecator and the hermit, the suicidal lover of life, the consumptive struggling for breath who aspires to be an opera singer, the *furioso* never abandoned by his anger and vehemence.

This collection brings together narrative writing by the Austrian author Thomas Bernhard, organized around five autobiographical works alongside key prose pieces and an interview translated into French. The volume includes texts such as The Basement, The Breath, The Cold, A Child, and Wittgenstein's Nephew, presenting the voice of a writer marked by personal struggles, critique, and artistic ambition, featuring the imprecator and the hermit, the suicidal lover of life, and the consumptive struggling for breath.

Readers interested in Austrian literature of the twentieth century and the development of European prose may find this comprehensive collection relevant to their study. The volume highlights the relationship between lived experience and narrative creation in the author's work, providing access to his major shorter and autobiographical writings in French translation, offering a sequence not just of sentences, but of shock impressions as described by the author.