Al limite boschivo

by Thomas Bernhard, Enza Gini (Translator)

In letteratura gli avvenimenti sono sempre più rari. Come tale fu salutata la pubblicazione di quest'opera che, insieme a Perturbamento, portò per la prima volta all'attenzione dei lettori italiani la prosa di Thomas Bernhard, uno scrittore che, come scrive il germanista Giorgio Cusatelli, "registra, simile a un burocrate e senza un'ombra di misticismo, i progressi quotidiani del male."
Tre racconti - Kulterer, L'Italiano e Al limite boschivo - che "fotografano l'unica follia senza scampo, quella della razionalit". Dall'alienazione di Al limite boschivo in cui si arriva addirittura a proclamare "la reciproca vacuità della vita e della morte."
La meditazione di Bernhard, però, per quanto estrema, non si accende mai in un'invettiva o in un'accusa esplicita nei confronti di un Dio latitante, ma si mantiene sempre sul tono di una pura cronaca, dove i fatti sono sempre opera altrui e perfino chi li racconta non esce mai allo scoperto.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, German Literature, 20th Century

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian writer who ranks among the most distinguished German-speaking writers of the second half of the 20th century.

Although internationally he’s most acclaimed because of his novels, he was also a prolific playwright. His characters are often at work on a lifetime and never-ending major project while they deal with themes such as suicide, madness and obsession, and, as Bernhard did, a love-hate relationship with Austria. His prose is tumultuous but sober at the same time, philosophic by turns, with a musical cadence and plenty of black humor.

He started publishing in the year 1963 with the novel Frost. His last published work, appearing in the year 1986, was Extinction. Some of his best-known works include The Loser (about a student’s fictionalized relationship with the pianist Glenn Gould), Wittgenstein’s Nephew, and Woodcutters.

Reviews

[Ilse · Rating 4 out of 5]

He wrote only sad stories. Sometimes extremely happy ideas would occur to him, ideas that he himself couldn’t help laughing at, but he was unable to write them down. He had never managed to write even a single happy story. Why can’t I manage to write any happy stories? he had often asked himself. A story with a balloon, for example, with a shirt-sleeved sailor, with a trampoline, with a merry-go-round?

Why only sad stories? Thinking of the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard in terms of a quintessential arch-pessimist, this question could have been one he might ask himself when looking in the mirror gauging the state of his mind. In this collection of 3 early stories, published in 1969 and thematising death, despair, suicide, the aftermath of war, ignorance and indifference, he might not exactly present himself as Mr. Congeniality spreading sunshine, but they have no whisk of his notorious vitriolic tirades on Austria or humanity. Sinister and unsettling as the stories are, laced with both subliminal and distinct violence, they are of an almost elegiac subtlety. Bernhard chimes a mild, almost compassionate tone, creating a serene and subdued atmosphere of desolation and darkness which continues to reverberate gently in the mind.

I read this collection in a 2016 Dutch translation. An English translation of the first story, Kulturer, can be found here, one of the second, The Italian, a Fragment here. Both stories were turned into a film. An English translation of the title story, At the Timberline, can be found here.

In the first story, Der Kulterer, a prisoner, in custody for a non-descript crime, dreads his pending release and return to his wife and society, pondering on the possibility to continue his stay in prison. Of a dreamy and touching vulnerability, as the prisoner is depicted writing stories at night reading them aloud to his cellmates, the story reads as a reflection on Thomas Bernhard’s view on his position as a writer, his fragile state of being in the world, homeless, nowhere safe or understood, nor in the incarceration of his writing and internal life, nor in the encumbering freedom of the outside world.



The second story, Der Italiener. Fragment echoes the afterpains of war and of history as a mass grave in which the sounds of horror and suffering will linger on endlessly.

Only a single further time was I roused from my thoughts, when the Italian, only an instant after inviting me to visit him in Florence, right after we had crossed the bridge, said “The gloom that prevails here...” and then fell silent. “There is no way,” he said, “that one can escape oneself.”

In the title story, An der Baumgrenze, the narrator aloofly observes the ambivalence and unruliness of human relationships, the unfeasibility to flight social and legal anathema, any attempt to live on the unliveable sharp edge of a border that cannot be trespassed, doomed to fail.

Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod.


(Landscape photographs by Michael Kenna)

The postface offers as icing on the cake Thomas Bernhard’s accepting speech when he was awarded the Austrian National Prize in 1968, during which most of the audience walked out.

”There is nothing to praise, nothing to condemn, nothing to accuse, but a great many things are ludicrous; and everything is ludicrous when one thinks about death.”

[SarahJaneSmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vor allem Der Kulterer (von 1962) ist sprachlich wie inhaltlich faszinierend. Beim Lesen fiel mir auf, diese Erzählung noch aus meiner Schulzeit zu kennen... wenn ich mich richtig erinnere, war ich schon damals von Bernhards langen Sätzen beeindruckt.

[SurferRosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tre brevi racconti, in realtà due racconti e un frammento, la sensazione di essere al cospetto di tre iceberg di cui vediamo emergere la punta ma sappiamo giganteschi sotto la superficie.
Tutti e tre molto belli, “L’italiano” (il frammento) e “Al limite boschivo” sono due tipici oggetti bernhardiani seppur non lo siano nello stile, due oggetti non identificati che attraversano la testa del lettore lasciandogli intravedere solo la scia (forse); l’altro, “Kulterer”, che nel volumetto sta per primo, non è che sia più debole degli altri - anzi come racconto in sé è forse il più compiuto e riuscito - ma sconta un evidentissimo debito (ci sono arrivato io che sono una capra) col Melville di Bartleby lo scrivano, oltre che ovviamente con Kafka - ma questo lo scontano tutti e tre i racconti, anzi in letteratura il debito con Kafka è scontato da mezzo mondo e forse più, quindi siamo a posto così.

Vediamo brevemente la sostanza di cui è fatto “L’italiano”. Durante una veglia funebre, il figlio del padre appena morto suicida - si è sparato una fucilata in faccia - passeggia nel giardino con un parente italiano. Si conoscono poco, l’italiano parla benissimo il tedesco e questo mette in imbarazzo il giovane che non sa una parola di italiano e sembra volergli usare la cortesia di non portarlo al cospetto della salma nel padiglione. Quel giorno di agosto, come ogni anno, nel padiglione si sarebbe dovuta tenere una recita teatrale, usanza familiare tramandata di generazione in generazione. Guardano i costumi di scena ammassati nella rimessa. Passano accanto alla casa e ascoltano brevemente le sorelle del ragazzo dialogare mentre credono che nessuno le senta. Attraversano una radura nel bosco. Usciti dal bosco il ragazzo informa l’italiano che quella radura è una fossa comune in cui sono sepolti 20 polacchi che verso la fine della guerra si nascosero nel padiglione e vennero poi scovati e trucidati dai tedeschi. Il padre chiamava il padiglione “il mattatoio”. Giunti al di là del ponte (...) l’italiano disse: “Il buio che regna qui…” e tacque. “Non c’è” disse, “nessun mezzo per sfuggire a se stessi.” Che cosa intendesse in quel momento non sapevo: eravamo davanti alla finestra aperta, davanti al morto.

[WillemC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eerste leesbeurt 2017: 4/5

Tweede leesbeurt 2025: 4/5

"Soms viel hem iets bijzonder vrolijks in, waar hij zelf om moest lachen, maar opschrijven kon hij het niet."

"Op de boomgrens" bevat drie vroege Bernhard-verhalen die voor het eerst samen verschenen in 1969. Jaren geleden was ik het meest onder de indruk van het eerste, "Kulterer", een korte vertelling over een man die in de gevangenis - door het gestructureerde leven dat daar heerst - is beginnen te schrijven en, nu zijn vrijlating nabij is, vreest die activiteit in de chaotische, "vrije" buitenwereld niet meer te kunnen verderzetten. Nu ik (voor zover ik weet althans) al het in het Nederlands vertaalde proza van Bernhard gelezen heb, was ik meer onder de indruk van "De Italiaan" en het ook in "Vertellingen" opgenomen "Op de boomgrens", dat ik nu voor de derde keer las. Vooral de donkere absurditeit en zwarte humor ervan raken en kondigen het latere meesterschap van deze auteur aan.

"Gisteren, de achtentwintigste, is hij bij verrassing door twee houtslepers gevonden, vlak onder de boomgrens boven Mühlbach, bevroren en toegedekt door twee door hem doodgeslagen flinke berggeiten."

"De laatste tijd schrijf ik alle brieven drie tot wel vier of vijf keer, altijd om de opwinding tijdens het schrijven de baas te worden, zowel wat mijn handschrift als wat mijn gedachten betreft."

"Ik stond al op het massagraf terwijl ik het verschil tussen 'zomerkomediebezoekers' en 'zomerdodenbezoekers' overpeinsde."

"De gevangenen gingen ervan uit dat het vandaag voor hem een feestdag was, ze konden niet weten of begrijpen dat juist deze dag de afschuwelijkste in Kulterers leven was."

[Donato · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a recent review of a Thomas Bernhard book (Amras), I asked whether there was such a thing as a "minor" Bernhard work. (Spoiler alert: the answer was no.) But now I'd like to take that idea one step further. Given that 99.99% of the books that get published are crap, why should we be reading anything but Bernhard (et al)? Why should we be wasting our time with any text that does not get to the heart of the matter? that does not even attempt to get at the question? Why don't we all lock ourselves into one of those South Korean "fake prisons" and read all of the .01% books worth reading? [1]

This is a small book, a collection of 3 short stories. One might be tempted to call them "fragments" (in fact the middle story is called "The Italian (fragment)"). But a mere fragment, a piece of paper torn out of a Bernhard book, with only a few words legible on it, is worth more than 99.99% of the crap that gets published. Those words, that text, will transport you inside and outside a thought, inside and outside experience, and they will show you the very workings of consciousness.


[1] "The one who is 'free' is not free, and the one who is 'not free' is not not free. 'Where are the limits of freedom and how are they established?'" [page 28 of the Guanda edition, my translation from the Italian translation]

[Matthias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very distilled Bernhard. If you like his writing, you will immediately pick up on the atmosphere: your mind will fill in all the vivid and horrid details familiar from his longer novels. If you are new to his writing, you might not get so much out of it.

[Tijl Vandersteene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dit is een boek naar mijn hart. In 80 pagina's vertelt Bernhard drie uiteenlopende verhalen. Alle drie lieten ze een diepe indruk na. Ze zijn alle drie beperkt wat ruimte, tijd en actie betreft maar nauwelijks beperkt in impact.
Telkens lezen we wat er op 1 punt gebeurt: een afscheid, een gesprek, een ontmoeting, een halve dag, enkele uren, twee mensen... Maar het punt fungeert slechts als raakpunt of kruispunt van verschillende lijnen die voor en na het punt verdergaan.
Zuinig maar toch helder en treffend geschreven roept Bernhard ganse levens en werelden op in anekdotische verhaaltjes. Zijn verhalen zijn als de afgeleide van de abstracte kromme die het leven is. Vanuit de punten die deze verhalen vormen is de lezer in staat zich in elke dimensie, elke zin en elke richting een werkelijkheid te denken.

[Rutger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duidelijk de inspirator van Sebald. Heel interessant.

[David Partikian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1969, short stories by Thomas Bernhard appeared in an edition by a small Salzburg, Austrian publishing house, Residenz Verlag. These submissions to a rival publishing house which later culminated with multiple volumes of Bernhard’s critically acclaimed autobiography irked his Suhrkamp publisher, Sigfried Unseld, to no end.* Their lengthy correspondence detailing the treachery and broken promises is chronicled in the letters between the two, Thomas Bernhard: Sigfried Unseld: Die Briefwechsel (Suhrkamp, 2009). The rancor and bitterness over Bernhard giving works to a second publisher remained until the very end, as Bernhard signed off shortly before his death with one of the most deluded, enigmatic and sarcastic epistolary “good byes” in literary history:

“Ich war sicher einer der unkompliziertesten Autoren, die Sie jemals gehabt haben.
Ihr Sie sehr respekierender
Thomas Bernhard
[I was certainly one of the most uncomplicated authors that you ever had.
Yours with all due respect,**
Thomas Bernhard. Translation mine].

With the hindsight of the correspondence between Bernhard and his most important publisher, we can assume that—initially at least—the stories published by Residenz Verlag were minor works. Indeed, they were fragments and rewrites of abandoned stories from before the publication of Frost, a novel rejected by Suhrkamp. This in mind, Bernhard did do a complete rewrite for film versions of two of the stories from the collection Am der Baumgrenze [At the Timberline]. Both appeared—again in Residenz Verlag—in the early 1970’s: Der Kulturer and Der Italiener. Below are reviews of all three stories as they initially appeared in the 1969 Residenz Verlag edition An der Baumgrenze. Later reviews will address the substantial rewrites Bernhard did in the early 1970’s for film versions.

Der Kulterer:

Der kulterer [A neologism implying the cultured person] is an ode to both the writings and lives of Franz Kafka and his favorite writer, Robert Walser. The story begins with an epigram Walser quote: Das Land war wie versunken in ein tiefes, musikalishes Denken. [The country wallowed, as if sunk in deep, musical thought. Trans. Mine].
Walser spent his final years in a Swiss mental institution writing short pieces in a microscopic handwriting that took decades after his death for scholars to decipher. Thus, the institution gave Walser the regimen and peace he needed to write, even if he meant the writing only for himself, quite literally by making his thought illegible.

Walser’s influence on Franz Kafka is inescapable. Like Walser, Kafka needed utter solitude to write his fragments and idiosyncratic prose pieces, most of which went unpublished in his lifetime. The titles and descriptions of the stories that the protagonist of Der Kulterer, Franz Kulterer (or Franz K. if you will) bear a striking resemblance to Kafka’s stories and vignettes. Indeed, Die Kulterer begins with a description of an inmate’s writing that is a virtual homage to Kafka or Franz K.’s canon. Just substitute the title hyena for jackel (Schakale und Araber) or an ape for the title (Ein Bericht für eine Akademie) and the homage is all but too obvious.

The premise of the tale is close to my heart: The best writing and thinking is done under non-ideal circumstances where there is a stringent regimen in place of freedom. Thus, the Kulterer or Franz Kulterer, can only create timeless stories and ideas because he writes in the silence of a shared cell in almost complete darkness. Of course, the stories are not properly understood by his cellmates or the populace.

After a thirty-year career in maritime, I am convinced that my thoughts are at their sharpest when I am harried and—metaphorically—owned by someone else for months on end on a ship. And no matter how much I promised myself, my mind would become less and less sharp after signing off a vessel. Thus, I relate completely with Bernhard and his protagonist Franz Kulterer in this tale. As the story unfolds, the protagonist fears his impending release from incarceration in that it will atrophy his acute thought processes and ability to write them down. He knows instinctively that his cerebral productivity will end. Hence a parable on writing and the conditions needed for ideas that rise above the miasma of banal revery.

Die Italiener [The Italian]:

The Italiener is, perhaps, the most important short story or, rather, fragment in the entire Bernhard canon in that this early fragment contains the seeds of the themes that imbue his greatest novel, Auslöschung [Extinction], and his most controversial play, Am Heldenplatz: Austrian guilt over its complicity with National Socialists and the war crimes committed. Although this early fragment lacks the humor or humorous rage of the narrator in Extinction, the fragment has an interesting juxtaposition and repeated use of the word “lust” [humor], specifically in the dated word “Lusthaus” for an Austrian country house on an estate where—in this tale-- amateur family comedies and tragedies, or both, were performed annually. With Bernhardian tongue-in-cheek humor and repeated word usage that foreshadows his later works, the Lusthaus is most emphatically not funny. Ah, but Extinction is, at least in German.

An der Baumgrenze [At the Timberline]:

The tale which the collection is named is the only story to be written after Bernhard was under contract with Suhrkamp, and is the one which probably pissed off Unseld the most, seeing that he had continually advanced Bernhard funds for his country home. However, it is a minor work of negligible value. If it were shorter, it would fit in Der Stimmenimitator which appeared almost a decade later. The story has the feel of Frost, but certainly did not fit in that work, and stands out only because the narrator actually managed to impregnate a woman, a rarity throughout Bernhard’s work.
----------------------------------------
*Suhrkamp eventually gained the rights to these stories and now has an edition available with the original Anton Lehmden drawings; I own this edition, but never read it. I’m a purist and finally read these stories for the first time this week in a pristine 1969 first edition, save the absence of a dust jacket, borrowed from the UNH library system.
**“Ihr Sie sehr respektierender” is—most likely--dripping with sarcasm. Even native German speakers have a hard time with this line. It is most certainly not a typical manner of signing a letter and—I think--is akin to the tongue-in-cheek English, “With all due respect” (i.e. “none”). Note: Although Unseld and Bernhard had one in-person meeting after this letter, this is the final sentence of their lengthy correspondence over decades.

[Buddho · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cynische man die Thomas Bernhard. In dit boekje krijg je drie verhalen voorgeschoteld waarvan de eerste naar mijn idee het sterkste is. Dat verhaal gaat over een gevangene die weldra van zijn vrijheid mag genieten maar eigenlijk geen idee heeft wat hij daarbuiten moet gaan doen. De overige twee verhalen begreep ik niet goed en konden mijn aandacht niet houden. De schrijfstijl van de verhaaltjes is ook niet vlot. Verder waren de verhalen wat somber van toon.

Voor mij niet een een boekje dat ik kan aanraden.

[Marco Innamorati · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tre racconti, dei quali uno è presumibilmente incompiuto (“L’Italiano”). Il più riuscito è il primo, che comunica l’atmosfera di angoscia del miglior Bernhard. Però la tecnica narrativa non è quella che lo ha reso famoso. È più tradizionale anche rispetto a Amras, che pure è giovanile.
Malgrado sia (pare) una delle primissime uscitw di Bernhard in italiano, il libro è oggi da considerare una curiosità per “completisti”.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Racconti abbastanza inconsistenti, fra i quali il più compiuto, il primo, è anche il più debole. Più avanti sarà la prosa di Bernhard a travolgere tutto, è lei la protagonista delle sue opere, mentre qui la luce che ancora illumina gli spunti narrativi ne rivela la povertà.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine Sammlung von Erzählungen, geprägt durch die düster-pessimistische Weltsicht Thomas Bernhards, bestechend durch gekonnte Charakter- und Stimmungsbildung.

[Kata Brassnyó · Rating 2 out of 5]

nem értettem, annyira fura az egész

[Jacques · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drie verhalen en een boeiend nawoord van Gerard Bes en Philip Grisel (vertalers).

[Patrizia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tre racconti in uno stile scarno e implacabile, in cui gli opposti sembrano coincidere per indicare che il mondo esterno è una prigione e l’unica via di fuga è la morte.

[Tom Ebener · Rating 3 out of 5]

Der Kulterer 4/5
der Italiener 3/5
an der Baumgrenze 2/5