The Demons

by Heimito von Doderer, Richard Winston (Translator), Clara Winston (Translator)

A vast documentation of the lives of a large cross section of the population of Vienna in 1927.

Genres: Fiction, German Literature, Classics, Novels, Literature, 20th Century, Modern Classics

1334 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Heimito von Doderer lebte fast ausschließlich in Wien. 1916 geriet er in russische Gefangenschaft und kehrte erst 1920 zurück. Er studierte Geschichtswissenschaft. Seit der Veröffentlichung seiner Hauptwerke "Die Strudlhofstiege" (1951) und "Die Dämonen" (1956) gilt er als einer der bedeutendsten österreichischen Schriftsteller.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having before him The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil, The Sleepwalkers by Hermann Broch and Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky as models Heimito von Doderer creates his masterful canvas of the restless twenties of the last century…

Even today, in Russia, say, we still see people constantly on the move: carrying bundles by hand, pulling wooden satchels behind them on little wagons or sleds. They roam – are compelled to roam. They are driven. Individual life does not rebel; there is too little of it for rebellion. One soul mingles with another like smoke. For that reason, too, people in those parts are fraternal. Here, as far as the West extends, as far as Rome and Greece reach, a man stands alone between the tended flower beds and the little porticoes of a house from which no one, by law and equity, is entitled to expel him. He stands alone, by himself; the soft blue air is around him; he is unencumbered on all sides, like a statue. This is the only way he knows how to be; only in this way can he be big or little, crooked or straight, good or bad.

The novel is a panoramic view of Vienna society in all its strata… The narration is epical, rich, colourful and full of subtle irony…

In the pattern of our past there repeatedly turns up one incomprehensible strand. Our true past lies in it, wherever we meet it, wherever it happens to crop up. We will never find that strand entwined in the midst of relationships which were once important to us, which make up the obviously significant portions of our life-stories. The true past is always peripheral, I might almost say “marginal” in nature. It is found at the margins of experience. It manifests itself – like another existence which is really ours – through persons whom we have seen for only brief spans of time now and then, or even only once in our lives, at places and in neighborhoods where we never set foot again. At times it almost seems as if we possess a second and as it were retroactive biography.

According to the narrator, every person has one’s own second reality, a set of one’s light and dark streaks – the world of one’s secret ideals, desires and mysteries that rule one’s life. So the main task of the narrator is to discover these secret facets of surrounding people and to learn their true nature and the motives of their behaviour.
The novel culminates in Vienna Palace of Justice fire on 15 July 1927 when the demonstration against the corruption of justice turns into the unruly and chaotic riot…

Metaphors were crashing to the ground, emblems breaking through their false bottoms into reality… The sudden contact with naked reality is fatal. Time-honored lies which play their necessary part in the economy of the psyche cannot suddenly be replaced by truth. Every second reality that is abruptly displaced by first reality leads to death.

We live and make mistakes… “Without stupidity, no life.” This is the prime law of the living.

[Jörg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Demons was marketed as one of the most important big city books ("Großstadtroman") of the 20th century, a depiction of Viennese society in the years 1926/27. A time of great change. Austria-Hungary went down in the aftermath of WW I, the new-born Austria was looking for its identity and with many competing developments.

Doderer worked on this book for more than 25 years, finally publishing it in 1956. The size and scope accordingly are enormous. In my German version, it has 1,345 small-printed pages. His most-read book Die Strudlhofstiege oder Melzer und die Tiefe der Jahre which was intended by him as an intro to The Demons, "only" has 909 slightly smaller pages with a slightly larger print. While the Strudlhofstiege already is a daunting affair, I would estimate that the Demons has at least 80% more words and is even more ambitious.

While the focus is on the upper class of Vienna, the author introduces about a hundred characters, giving insights into the working class, the demimonde, peasants, military and clerks as well.

The Narrators
Doderer uses three different narrators. Sektionsrat Geyrenhoff is the main voice, writing in first person. He is a pensioner and former officer, now spending his time as a chronist of the time. On a meta level he is paying two other narrators, Rene Stangeler and Kajetan von Schlaggenberg for their notes, editing and including them in his chronicle. Rene Stangeler is a historian working on a post-doc thesis, trying to find his independence. From his family as well as financially and socially. Kajetan von Schlaggenberg is a published author, later working for a newspaper for some time, having left his wife. Both men are haunted by their respective demons which I'll come to later. It's difficult to discern whether a chapter was narrated by Rene or Kajetan as they both write in third person. All three narrators already appeared in Die Strudlhofstiege.

While the two narrators Stangeler and Schlaggenberg take active roles in the narration, it takes a 1,000 pages before the third narrator Geyrenhoff finally does take part in the narration himself as well. In all their narrations, events often serve as an origin of narrators' ponderings or descriptions of Vienna, lending depth.

The Characters
The Demons are character-driven. A lot of characters appear, even minor characters reappear repeatedly and are described in depth. I categorize them in 4 or 5 tiers.

1 - The three already mentioned narrators. Rene and Kajetan are probably the characters being spoken about the most.
2 - The main cast: e.g. Leonard, Mary K, Quapp. These characters are followed in their life. We see their development. Leonard on his way from a worker to a librarian for a Prince, Mary successfully finding her love interest, Quapp failing as a violinist but still making her way to a huge inheritance and finally finding out about her illegitimate birth.
3 - The focused specialists: e.g. Jan Herzka, Levielle, Anny Gräven. This could be included in tier 2, but they have a narrower focus. Herzka with his fetish for witch trials, Levielle as a schemer ruining others for his own benefit, the prostitute Anny Gräven as the lynchpin in Vienna's underworld.
4 - The support: e.g. Cornel Lasch, Laura Konterhonz. This tier includes the most characters. They help characterizing the main protagonists in their relations. Even on this tier, characters can get pages of detail. For example, Leonard meets a worker in a dubious café in Vienna. This meeting only has importance to introduce one of the few historical figures who got shot in a demonstration with his death being instrumental for the Vienna Justice Palace fire. The scene of this encounter is enriched by Doderer giving us the story of the owner of this café and how she bought the café, what differentiates her from the previous owner, the people working there and its customers.
5 - The environment, e.g. the customers of the aforementioned café.

A key characteristic is that the characters often reflect upon the past and it is important for their actions. A trait it has in common with Doderer's Strudlhofstiege which had the subtitle "Die Tiefe der Zeit". It is one of the beliefs of the author that a human at certain points in time will have fractures in his personal life when enough events and developments in the past have accumulated. Déjà-Vu's and random associations are a frequent occurance.

Some Topics
From all of this, it can easily be gathered that The Demons is a verbose and slow-going affair. Even relations between minor characters are developed in drawn out conversations. After 500 pages, a new character can appear and hold a long speech about revolutionaries, only to reappear in the very end again for another time.

Leonard Kakabsa spending his weekends with a colleague in the Burgenland is just a hook for introducing a bunch of new characters and elaborating on the rising conflict between socialist workers and right-wing nationalists escalating first in the Burgenland, then culminating in the fire of the Justizpalast in Vienna. Doderer moves freely along his timeline and previews things to come repeatedly.

Fat Women ("Dicke Damen") are a recurring topic. Dicke Damen even was the working title. Kajetan von Schlaggenberg muses on their advantages vs. the bony young women wasting men's time, vying for their place in society. The fat women get a voice as well, leafing through fashion magazines for young women. Being fat is synonymous with not young when it comes to women in Die Dämonen. He contrasts those ladies with the opposing beauty ideal, asking for slender almost androgynous women.

There are many more topics, an embezzled heritage, nationalist Hungarian activities, a reciprocal attraction from the distance, the difficulties of an independent life.

The Demons
Demons hide behind all those topics. The political situation is one of the main playing fields for them. The old order has ended and the new one is still in development. Demons are raising their ugly heads in their vie for power. Socialist workers organizing themselves with the individual worker not having no other choice than being part of the unions. Nationalist forces, be they Austrian or Hungarian contesting the workers and joined by an unruly mob.

Beside the political demons, sexual demons get their due. Somewhere in between impertinence and ridicule, Doderer spends 50 pages written in a pseudo-medieval German on a fictitious manuscript. A report from an informal witch trial in the 15th century, the point being that a big part was sexual interest in what you would call BDSM nowadays. Big kudos that he managed to place what probably was his own demon into a book in the 50s. Schlaggenberg's Dicke Damen are another representation of a sexual demon.

In the end, When Geyrenhoff finally takes an active role, Doderer lets him speak about demons literally. For him, the demons are ideologies, anything which creates a second reality. A "Jenseits im Diesseits" (a beyond in the here and now). These secondary realities stand beside the real life, the don't own a materiality. They are something to get lost in and lose the way.
Finally, the narration culminates in the Vienna Justice Palace fire (15 July, 1926) as manifestation of the political demons. This day is seen from the eyes of each more or less relevant character.

Verdict
For sure an extraordinary book. With regard to volume in first place but also in scope. For almost a month, the characters lived with me. I was looking forward to read about their development. But I also dreaded picking up the book sometimes and wanted it to be finished more than anything. Especially during this awful medieval report on the witch trial. The period between the two world wars is one of the most interesting literary periods of Germany as well as Austria-Hungary, at least for me. If you feel the same and don't mind spending a lot of time on such an anachronistic and egocentric effort, you might give The Demons a chance. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it.

[Martin Fossum · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is this mid 19th century book doing in a mid 20th century publishing list? Joking aside, I was fascinated to learn that this book (there are in fact two volumes to this expansive work exceeding 1300 pages) was actually published in 1955 when it seemed like it could have come out of mid-19th century Russia or along-side contemporary French or British realists/naturalists like Hugo or Dickens. I've read that Doderer started working on the project well before WWII, (and the plot orbits around the events of 1926-1927 Vienna) but to have a book of this ILK emerge in the same decade that Kerouac was writing the scrolls for On the Road is baffling, to say the least.

And yet, what a lovely and sprawling book! Whether or not Doderer was enamored enough with Dostoyevsky to attempt to emulate his craft is beside the point. What resulted from Doderer's captivation with the 19th century literary tradition was a work that is beautifully insightful, delicately observant, socially aware and brilliantly executed. To understand what life was like among an even slice of social classes in a Vienna sandwiched between the two world wars, this book will serve the reader well. It is a Vienna struggling with industrialization, class conflict, capitalism and modernity. Enter the smoke-filled cafes where any number of discussions take place regarding everything from fashion to latin to gossip and scandal. You will come to appreciate Doderer's hand as he describes the diversity of characters that inhabit this intimate community.

Again, the language reminds me of something out of the 19th century tradition. Here are a few examples of Doderer's style (artificially constructed, by me, for effect.):

"He was horrified and astounded at what he had just heard, and he contained his rage by taking another sip from his tea."

"She was happy that she had found someone who shared her love of music and her unique interests, and this realization made him, in some way, unworthy and a bore."

"He was elated and proud that he had reject the offered promotion. After all, to be beholden is to be a slave, he thought to himself, and he walked down the Vienna Gasse with a certain levity. He felt at this time that his shoulders were held a bit higher and that his eyes a bit more narrow with determination and conviction. A moment later a wave of self-disgust overcame him and he was nearly compelled to seek an alleyway where he could relieve himself of his regret."

Hopefully, this short review will help to prepare you for the experience. Oh, yes... and there's a full chapter written in what could be considered pseudo Middle English. This is the translator's device to translate a section of medieval Germanic text to "readable" English. Good luck! I almost threw the book across the room at this point.

[Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich würde lügen, wenn ich behauptete, dass ich mich nicht stellenweise ein wenig durch dieses Buch kämpfen musste. Doderers Sprache ist genial und ich wollte mich in manche Formulierungen hineinlegen so toll fand ich sie, aber sie erfordert auch viel Aufmerksamkeit. Und fast 1400 Seiten Text in Kleindruckschrift sind viel, auch für meine nicht mehr ganz so jungen Augen. Dennoch, dieses Buch belohnt so unglaublich. Gespickt mit wunderbar lakonischem Humor gelingt es dem Autor alle Figuren und Handlungsstränge am Schluß zu einem Ganzen zusammen laufen zu lassen und trotz aller unmöglichen Zufälle wirkt die Geschichte nie konstruiert. Klar, wir haben es hier mit einem Roman zu tun, der Mitte der 1950er erschienen ist und in den 1920ern spielt, manche Formulierungen sind also im Kontext der Zeit zu lesen. Ich empfand das Buch aber auf vielen Ebenen durchaus auch modern.
Es war ja eines der absoluten Lieblingsbücher meines verstorbenen Vaters und er hat’s über die Jahre immer wieder gelesen. Ich kann’s verstehen, es muss sich angefühlt haben wie nach Hause kommen, hat man doch am Ende des Buches das Gefühl mit den Protagonist*innen eine Gruppe an neuen Freunden gewonnen zu haben.

[may · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a hard one to review since it completely captivated me and (to use a favourite phrase) felt more like a book to ‘live within’. So, this will be composed of what I could salvage from my notes; mainly a summary of what’s offered and how I felt about it.

For me, The Demons was something above the scope of a typical novel and yet seemingly composed of a perfectly toned set of short stories. The Demons, which at its core constructs a view into the lives and relationships of people, and the atmosphere in the city of Vienna leading up to the July Revolt of 1927, reads like a vast spider’s web of persons and events, all collected into the manuscript presented to the reader (composed by a few of the characters), in which discovery of intersections between the strands drives the reader forward with less a sense of overall plot conclusion than a sense of adventure and real immersion.

Amongst tales that drag you into the city (so much so you forget you’re reading a novel) detailing the happenings of a given day for a given person, you will also be faced with inserted found documents, philosophical explorations and dream diaries that each build upon the main structure of the novel and serve their purpose of tying together the diverse cast of individuals to map a trail of happenings that erupts on 15th July with the burning of the Palace of Justice.

On top of this tale-based structure, Doderer uses the concept of a novel being written by an in-novel character as a welcoming strength. Each chronicled moment is often sprinkled with author’s (the character Geyrenhoff in this case) interjections that point out a detail in the text or add very personal narration which makes the novel more approachable and uplifting than its subject matter would imply.
With this, there’s a finely weighed balance of amusing insights into the upper classes; such as Ladies’ meetings to discuss contemporary fashion (in which there’s always some going behind each other’s backs) and various spontaneous gatherings of people ending in drinks and car rides through Vienna; and encyclopaedic, world building explorations; notably a whole section dedicated to the history of an inherited castle, it’s defences and a found medieval manuscript that plays an important role in the later part of the novel.

This doesn’t feel as heavy, slow and daunting as a 1300-page novel would have you imagine. Instead, what you get is an easily readable and approachable translation which doesn’t feel as if any of the authenticity was sacrificed. A smooth and sprawling novel that is worth the read if you want Modernism in its finest (and possibly most transitionary) mode, and something that you can let completely take you in.

[Jaume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Descomunal novela con más de 100 personajes (imprescindible hacerte un guion/listado para no perderte) que se mezclan constantemente. Retrato de la sociedad vienesa de principios del siglo XX; retrato desde distintes capas sociales. Más de 1600 páginas. Ríete de El Quijote. Envolvente, a ratos pesada, pero sin duda inolvidable. Quizás menos hubiera sido más.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

brutaler letzter satz, der, wo der erzähler meint, es wär wohl so, dass man die charaktere nie mehr wiedersieht; wenn man
nach fast 1400 (eigentlich plus die fast 800 von der strudlhofstiege) von herzen bedauert, dass man das buch fertig gelesen hat, sagt das wohl einiges aus!

[Lee Klein]

Just ordered an ~$50 two-volume hardcover copy of this in "new" condition -- looks like I know what I'll be reading from Nov 1 to Jan 1.

[David Ramirer · Rating 5 out of 5]

das epizentrum des umfangreichen romans ist der brand des justizpalastes in wien im jahre 1927, auf dieses ereignis zusteuernd, aus den unterschiedlichsten perspektiven, die mittels sehr stark kontrastierender sozialer ebenen geschildert werden. die struktur des buches orientiert sich an einer imaginären chronik, die ein ehemaliger sektionsrat (geyrenhoff) nach seiner pensionierung anlegt, um ereignisse in seiner umgebung festzuhalten. unterstützt wird er dabei von einigen der anderen protagonisten des romans. es gelingt doderer auf erstaunliche art und weise, die unterschiedlichen autoren mit wenigen worten und anmerkungen kenntlich zu machen. im großen und ganzen ist aber der roman kein politischer roman, und auch die bezeichnung "stadt-roman" trifft den kern des buches nicht - da sich in diesem epischen werke vielleicht die ergreifendsten naturschilderungen deutscher sprache finden, die jemals zu papier gebracht worden sind. wesentlich an dem buch ist jedenfalls die tiefe menschliche kraft, die die protagonisten in einem unweigerlichen sog aufeinander zu - oder auch voneinander weg - bewegt. die kraft des lebens selbst ist zu spüren.
ein lebensroman, eine wahre krone im werke doderers.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Demons is a novel of social realism that harks back to the nineteenth century even though it was written, in its current version (the first volume was originally written in the thirties), after the Second World War. In its story we find a compelling account of the city of Vienna and the elite society of that city as it is coming apart in the aftermath of the Great War. Through it all is a critique of ideology and also brief passages of wisdom.

[Robert Wechsler]

I’m glad I tasted this novel, which I’ve been wanting to read ever since the translators' daughter told me about the translation when I interviewed her for my (now free) book Performing Without a Stage. It’s an entertaining novel, very well translated, with a first-person narrator with interesting views and a series of characters that keeps the reader hopping even when nothing is happening. But after 100 pages I realized I was never going to make it close to the end of the novel’s 1,300 pages, because the milieu didn’t interest me at all. All the novel’s good points couldn’t overcome this for me.

From the book, here's a piece of what Krishna Winston (herself an excellent literary translator from German to English) told me about the novel's translation:
“What I particularly remember was a later time, when I was already a young teenager, when my parents were translating the Austrian writer Heimito von Doderer̓s novel The Demons, and there was a long section in that book which was written in pseudo-medieval German. So my parents were reading up to try to find some equivalent English diction, and for some reason they lit on William Caxton, and they had the whole family talking in Caxton̓s English. We all developed roles. We were monks, and I think I was Brother Sebastian and my sister was Brother Ambrose. We used to just go for hours talking in this tongue. And it went on for quite a while, because the chapter was a long one and my father struggled with it. I suppose that with influences like this, one inevitably starts to think, well, this is something I would enjoy doing, too."

[Alina Stardust · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meine zweite Wirklichkeit, Doderers Wien <3

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doderer erzählt in diesem Roman die Zeit um 1920 in Wien mit dem Brand des Justizpalastes am 15. Juli 1927 im Schlusskapitel. Er vermischt tatsächlich Ereignetes mit fiktivem Geschehen. Das alles in einem fantastisch miteinander verwobenen Konstrukt. Doderer kann mit wenigen Wörtern Menschen zeichnen samt Charakterzügen und Kleidung wie wenige Autoren. Allein' schon daraus ergeben sich vergnügliche Lesestunden. Rolf Vollmann schreibt in seinem Roman-Navigator: "(...) dann las man Doderer nicht, er war nicht koscher, man berührte ihn besser nicht, diesen verklemmten halben Sadisten und politisch ekligen Mitmacher. Bestenfalls Musil durfte sein, Roth war en vogue. Viel später, unlängst erst, merkte man, daß man sich um eine der besten Lektüren jener Jahre gebracht hatte (...) Wer vom Roman die schnelle Übersichtlichkeit verlangt, die er im Leben gern hätte, gerät ganz leicht unter die Ideologen, vor denen ihn das Lesen bewahren könnte, wenn er es aus den Romanen kennte. Nun ja; Doderer Dämonen also!"
Der Text fordert in seiner Komplexität, seinem Personenreichtum und Sprachfertigkeit (incl. "alter" Fremdwörter) den Leser sehr heraus - und belohnt ihn aber auch zugleich. Kein ganz einfaches Buch, aber ein schönes, wenn man sich darin eingerichtet hat. Ich werde meine Doderer Lektüre fortsetzen.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

At least as long as War and Peace, longer than Magic Mountain and Ulysses, probably a bit shorter than Man Without Qualities, a swirling narrative of Vienna in the 1920s and the life of a few dozen characters whose paths continually cross and recross.

[Geoffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hey, I read it! I may have been a bit less captivated than by the Strudlhof Steps, but that may be because of a certain centerlessness, which seems intentional, so I dunno. Regardless, I was glad to see of Stangeler, Quapp, Mary K, Leonhard, et al. Another thing worth noting is that, although it initially seems like a very standard sort of bourgeois novel, it also has a surprising degree of metatexuality. Please ponder the meaning of the medieval manuscript featuring a character name "Heimo."

[Mientras Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una gran novela, de las mejores de este mes
https://entremontonesdelibros.blogspo...

[Julia Pichler]

i was bored.