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Peter Weiss's first prose work,
The Shadow of the Coachman's Body, was unanimously praised as an original and perfect work of art by critics when it appeared in 1960. Here, in poet Rosmarie Waldrop's stunning translation, Weiss arranges a dark, vividly alive comedy of inert objects in a dismal boarding house-stones, buttons, hooks, needles, chairs, newspapers in an outhouse, clinking tin cups, celestial orbs, sewing machines, an overwound windup music box-which have oblique characters' shadows as their supporting cast. Described by Weiss as a "micro-novel,"
The Shadow of the Coachman's Body can be obscene, trivial and brutal, and yet it is also peculiarly intimate and offers endless possibilities-like a telescope and kaleidoscope rolled into one.
About the author
Peter Weiss (1916-1982) was a German playwright, dramatist, visual artist, filmmaker, and novelist. His works include
The Aesthetics of Resistance and
The Shadow of the Coachman's Body. He is best known in the US for his play
Marat/Sade: Peter Brook's production received the Tony Award for Best Play in 1966. His documentary drama
The Investigation, which recreates the trial of Auschwitz concentration camp guards, was produced on American television in the 1960s. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize after his death in 1982.
Summary
A meticulously observed and macabre tale of hell on earth from the revolutionary German author of the famous play Marat/Sade
