Europe, Europe: Forays into a Continent

by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

In this highly acclaimed and entertaining book, already "among the touchstones of the new travel writing" ( Newsweek ), one of West Germany's leading authors takes us on an insider's tour of Europe in the recent past. Focusing on Italy, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal, he describes how Europe has been moving toward a new identity.

Enzensberger makes a witty and knowledgeable traveling companion, delving into surprising corners and byways—from the back alleys of Budapest to the halls of the Italian mint—and striking up conversations with everyone from bankers to revolutionaries, astrologers to apparatchiks. In the process, he suggests that Europe's strength lies increasingly in embracing diversity and improvisation, not bigness and regimentation. He enables us to see with fresh eyes one of the most exciting parts of the world today.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, German Literature, History, European History, Politics

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

See also:
Cyrillic: Ханс Магнус Енценсбергер

Hans Magnus Enzensberger was a German author, poet, translator and editor. He had also written under the pseudonym Andreas Thalmayr.

Enzensberger was regarded as one of the literary founding figures of the Federal Republic of Germany and wrote more than 70 books. He was one of the leading authors in the Group 47, and influenced the 1968 West German student movement. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize and the Pour Le Mérite, among many others.

He wrote in a sarcastic, ironic tone in many of his poems. For example, the poem "Middle Class Blues" consists of various typicalities of middle class life, with the phrase "we can't complain" repeated several times, and concludes with "what are we waiting for?". Many of his poems also feature themes of civil unrest over economic- and class-based issues. Though primarily a poet and essayist, he also ventured into theatre, film, opera, radio drama, reportage and translation. He wrote novels and several books for children (including The Number Devil, an exploration of mathematics) and was co-author of a book for German as a foreign language, (Die Suche). He often wrote his poems and letters in lower case.

Enzensberger also invented and collaborated in the construction of a machine which automatically composes poems (Landsberger Poesieautomat). This was used during the 2006 Football World Cup to commentate on games.

Tumult, written in 2014, is an autobiographical reflection of his 1960s as a left-wing sympathizer in the Soviet Union and Cuba.

Enzensberger translated Adam Zagajewski, Lars Gustafsson, Pablo Neruda, W. H. Auden and César Vallejo. His own work has been translated into more than 40 languages.

Reviews

[Annett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hans Magnus Enzensbergers Einblicke in verschiedene europäische Länder der achtziger Jahre, in denen er Themen beleuchtet, die ihn persönlich interessieren, ist eine vernügliche Lektüre. Das Highlight ist jedoch die fiktive Reportage eines Timothy Taylor, der im Jahre 2006 verschiedene europäische Länder bereist und aus amerikanischer Perspektive betrachtet. Enzensberger nimmt darin einige Ereignisse vorweg, die mehr als zwanzig Jahre nach Erscheinen des Buches tatsächlich eingetreten sind: ein Atomunfall, der das Bordelais unbewohnbar macht (heute ist es Fukushima) oder den "Fall" der Berliner Mauer, die bei ihm allerdings noch konversatorisch behandelt wird. Spannender Lesestoff, vor allem, wenn man sich auch ein bisschen für europäische Literatur interessiert.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid collection of essays, if not a bit dated (they're from the 80's), giving an overview of (many of) the varied cultures of the states making up the current European Union. The final entry consists of shorter portraits of several countries by another writer, a bit startling at first, but works fine.

[Jalen Sowell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like my history a little more straight-forward and a lot less romantic, but this is interesting for a boots-on-the-ground journalistic perspective of what many nations in Europe were while rounding out the 20th century with the impending fall of the Soviet Union and a real unease about where the world was headed.

At times, maybe most of the time, I had no idea what was going on. I’m sure it’s not a bad book it just wasn’t my type.