Tales of Mr. Keuner

Bertolt Brecht

Translated by James Reidel

Illustrated by Ulf.K.

 

6.75 x 9.5 inches, 144 pp. March 2018

ISBN : 9780857424716

Rs  599.00 (HB)
$21.50 (HB)
£16.99 (HB)

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From the 1920s through the 1950s, Bertolt Brecht wrote a number of short, fictionalized comments on contemporary life, politics, and thought. Through the dramatic events of the first half of the twentieth century, Brecht’s Mr. Keuner offered up aphorisms, stray thoughts, and fragments of anecdote that punctured contemporary self-regard about religion, politics, business, and more. Deceptively light in tone, and bite-size in presentation, Mr. Keuner’s comments bring Brecht’s lacerating wit to bear on a wide range of the half-truths and public lies of his era.

This graphic novel adaptation sets a number of Brecht’s Mr. Keuner pieces, newly translated, alongside cartoons by German artist Ulf K., whose spare, abstract style lends force to the underlying meanings of Keuner’s pronouncements.

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) is one of the most important and legendary German playwrights and theatre directors of the twentieth century. 

 

James Reidel is poet, translator, editor and biographer. In addition to the works of Georg Trakl, he has translated novels by Franz Werfel and poetry by Thomas Bernhard, among others. He is the biographer of poet Weldon Kees and author of two volumes of poetry.

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