Νυχτερινές περίπολοι

by Ernst August Friedrich Klingemann

Με έχουν διώξει από εκκλησίες, επειδή με έπιασαν τα γέλια
αλλά και από πορνεία, επειδή το έριξα στην προσευχή.

Ισχύει ένα από τα δύο· είτε είναι οι άνθρωποι τρελοί είτε εγώ.
Αν τεθεί στην κρίση της πλειοψηφίας, χάθηκα.

Τίποτα δεν ξεπερνά το γέλιο και το θεωρώ τόσο πολύτιμο
όσο άλλοι μορφωμένοι άνθρωποι το κλάμα.

– BONAVENTURA

Tο 1804, το έτος της στέψης του Ναπολέοντα και της διάλυσης της Αγίας Ρωμαϊκής Αυτοκρατορίας του Γερμανικού Έθνους, εν μέσω δραματικών ανακατατάξεων στην Ευρώπη γενικότερα και στη γερμανική επικράτεια ειδικά, δημοσιεύεται ανώνυμα το σύντομο έργο με τίτλο Οι νυχτερινές περίπολοι του Μποναβεντούρα. Η επιλογή του συγγραφέα να κρυφτεί πίσω από το ψευδώνυμο Μποναβεντούρα εξηγείται από το καυστικό περιεχόμενο, την έντονη κοινωνική κριτική, αλλά και τα πολλαπλά βέλη ενάντια στο πολιτισμικό γίγνεσθαι της εποχής του, που καθιστούν το ιδιόρρυθμο αυτό κείμενο ιδιαίτερα προκλητικό.
Χρονοτόπος του σατιρικού αυτού κειμένου είναι η νύχτα και πρωταγωνιστής του είναι ο νυχτοφύλακας μιας μικρής πόλης στα τέλη του 18ου αιώνα. Ο νυχτοφύλακας και αφηγητής φωτίζει με το φανάρι του τους δρόμους και τα σοκάκια της νυχτερινής πόλης αλλά και τα σκοτεινά καμώματα των συμπολιτών του – κοιτά μέσα από πόρτες και παράθυρα, κοντοστέκει στις εσοχές και στα κατώφλια, περιδιαβαίνει νεκροταφεία, μουσεία και άδειες εκκλησίες. Άλλοτε απλώς παραστέκει στις νυχτερινές σκηνές που εκτυλίσσονται μπροστά του και αφουγκράζεται τις ιστορίες των μοναχικών ανθρώπων που, ο καθένας για τους δικούς του λόγους, προτιμούν το σκοτάδι και τη νύχτα. Ενίοτε όμως παρεμβαίνει αποφασιστικά, προκαλώντας αναστάτωση και ταραχή, διαταράσσοντας έτσι ο ίδιος την ησυχία που καλείται να διαφυλάξει.
Στις δεκαέξι νυχτερινές περιπόλους που απαρτίζουν το σπονδυλωτό μυθιστόρημα, ο νυχτοφύλακας μας εξιστορεί τις ιστορίες παθιασμένων ερώτων, υποκρισίας και απάτης, αγνής αγάπης και βαθιάς απελπισίας των ανθρώπων που συναντά. Στις πολλαπλές αυτές αφηγήσεις υφαίνει ξέφτια της δικής του ιστορίας, την πορεία του από ποιητής και κουκλοπαίχτης σε νυχτοφύλακα, το πέρασμά του από το τρελοκομείο, τον έρωτά του. Ο αναγνώστης –ακροατής και συνεργός του– τον ακολουθεί στους μαιανδρικούς του περιπάτους και κρυφοκοιτά μαζί του, μέσα από γρίλιες και κουρτίνες, τις ζωές των πολιτών.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, German Literature, Philosophy, Literary Fiction, Horror, Novels

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1804

About the author

Ernst August Friedrich Klingemann (31 August 1777 in Braunschweig – 25 January 1831 in Braunschweig) was a German writer. He is generally agreed to be the author of the 1804 novel Nachtwachen (Nightwatches) attributed to him under the pseudonym Bonaventura.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

When we were reading Nachtwachen von Bonaventura at university (for a graduate level course on German Romanticism), I found it rather interesting and actually more than a bit strangely ironic (if not even a bit troubling) that considering how the text of a given work of fiction, of drama etc., how the presented narrative of a book is generally and usually (and with ample if not even absolute justification I might add) considered to be all-important and paramount (and as such also of course more important, more essential than the author and his or her possible "intentions") that over three quarters of the secondary works (and in particular academic journal articles) I perused and consulted for my oral presentation and subsequent term paper on Nachtwachen von Bonaventura were primarily about who, were about which German author of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century might have penned the 1804 anonymously published satirical novel (the latter is now considered to have been written by Ernst August Friedrich Klingemann, but I for one certainly did find it more than a bit annoying and frustrating that when I was researching Nachtwachen von Bonaventura, there actually seemed to be more articles and the like on the question of authorship than on and about the presented and featured text, the narrative itself, its themes, potential meanings and possible interpretations).

Sorry for veering a bit off topic here, but I truly do believe that the rather constant musings and debates in especially academic circles as to who might have been the author of Nachtwachen von Bonaventura often seems to in many ways somewhat ignore the text and its absolutely brilliant satirical nihilism and cynicism, a nasty but always still entertaining kick in the proverbial and collective societal backside, a series of scathing satirical tirades and rants that gloriously, with humour but also always rather majorly resignedly and at times viciously not only hold up a mirror to society (in the form of the social outcast, the Nightwatchman Kreuzgang, who sees all and makes comments on all that he sees and encounters), they also show that the world, that humanity is in many if not even most ways unredeemable, that we as humans are as Kreuzgang states repeatedly much too sin-filled and problematic for heaven but at the same time sadly also too boring and mundanely unimaginative for hell. We thus exist or more to the point we vegetate away in a world that is for all intents and purposes nothing more than an insane asylum, a place where nothingness and insanity, where the world tuned upside down and inside out whilst at the same time being almost painfully dragging, mundanely tedious and unimaginative reigns supreme.

Now the type of satirical nihilism, of negativity, insanity, tedium and despair that is found, that is featured in Nachtwachen von Bonaventura, namely that humankind, that humanity in general is seen and considered as often or even usually without much that is even remotely positive, redeemable and salvageable, that is of course not a concept that could be described as being something all that novel and new for the time of publication, as even during the Age of Enlightenment, during the so-called Aufklärung (the 1700s), there were indeed already inklings of this type of negative and despairing philosophy and world view in say the satires of Voltaire, Jonathan Swift and Christoph Martin Wieland. However, Nachtwachen von Bonaventura in my humble opinion goes that one major step further, for the life of man as a Shakespearean stage, as role play and theatrics is (and this is actually profoundly 20th century in feel and scope) actually generally and without pardon depicted and shown as absolutely absurd, as a theatre of the absurd, a painful but enlightening tragicomedy (showing that mankind and human existence as a whole always and forever are nothing and remain nothing, no matter what we as humans might do, think or speak).

Most highly recommended and as such especially for those potential readers who enjoy biting and cynical satires, but for the original German novel, a good and decent general level of fluency in the German language is most definitely strongly suggested (and although I know that there are a number of English language translations available, as I have not perused any of these, I therefore also do not feel qualified to make any comments with regard to the potential quality of these translated renditions, but I will indeed mention that there is a dual language English/German edition of Nachtwachen von Bonaventura that I would love to get my hands on).

[Ronald Morton · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Woe! What is this – are you too but a mask and deceive me? – I no longer see you, Father –where are you? – At my touch all crumbles into ashes, and there is only a handful of dust lying yet on the ground, and a few satisfied worms creep secretly away like moral funeral orators who have outdone themselves at the banquet of sorrow. I strew this handful of paternal dust into the air and it remains – Nothing!"

First, when a translator admits right away that his edition is “intended for native speakers of English”, as a reader you should at least make a mental note that the book you are going to read has likely been updated (above and beyond the act of translation) into a more accessible or modern tone from its original form. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with that (I particularly loved Open Letter’s translation of The Golden Calf, and it is a very modern translation), and I don’t have any problem with it here, but it is something to keep in mind when interacting with the text.

I mention that because this text reads with a certain timelessness that I don’t think can be 100% ascribed to its author; I don’t use timelessness to necessarily denote a universality of chronological place, but instead use it to imply that it is difficult to firmly ascribe a literary era to the work: there is a fairly gothic element to the text, there are hints of Goethe’s Faust and Faust Part 2, there is an absurdity and surrealistic bent that would be more expected over a century after this was written, and there is a current of nihilism and decadence that pervades and courses through the text that also feels more modern than its 1804 publication date. But, a lot of those elements did exist in the literature of the time (even if they were not exactly common), it’s just – to me – the updated tone that likely displaces this work.

The work overall is both dark and funny, operating basically as 16 vignettes tied together by Kreuzgang, the watchman, who observes and narrates the sordid going-ons of his nightly watches. The work itself, as noted, is primarily nihilistic; with life being presented as a puppet show, a play, a dream, a tragedy – but throughout all of these the underlined fact is that we are not operators, but we are operated upon, and that free-will is largely ephemeral and mostly a lie we tell ourselves.

An interesting work that I was unaware of prior to this translation being released; recommended for fans of Beckett and general gothic, absurdist, or surrealistic fiction.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dieses Buch zusammen zu fassen ist beinahe unmöglich, da es alle möglichen Textformen aneinander reiht und dadurch ein buntes Gemisch aus so ziemlich allen entsteht. Geschrieben ist es satirisch, bissig und ein bisschen zynisch. Zum Lesen braucht man viel kulturelles, so wie historisches Hintergrundwissen, da über Kunst, Literatur, Geschichte und das Theater gleichermaßen gesprochen wird und mir persönlich ein, zwei Hintergründe fehlten.
Interessant fand ich wohl die Forschung zum Pseudonym "Bonaventura" - das Buch an sich hat mir zugegeben nicht besonders zugesagt: etwas verwirrend und durcheinander. Es hat wohl zurecht seinen Platz in der Literatur der Romantik.

[Vittorio Ducoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caducità, illusione e critica al potere in un'opera di straordinaria modernità

Le Nachtwachen des Bonaventura sono ancora oggi un caso letterario, se è vero che mentre Garzanti le attribuisce ad August Klingemann, Marsilio le pubblica come anonime. La prima attribuzione sembra comunque essere la più accreditata, e questo farebbe delle Veglie, pubblicate la prima volta nel 1804, il capolavoro di un autore misconosciuto, le cui altre opere non hanno lasciato molta traccia di sé.
La querelle sull'autore, che portò nel corso del tempo ad attribuire le Veglie ai maggiori esponenti del primo ottocento tedesco, quali E.T.A. Hoffmann, Shelling, Jean Paul, Brentano, rivela l'importanza di quest'opera, la sua rilevanza nel quadro della letteratura del primo romanticismo, anche se per la verità le cronache narrano che alla sua uscita nessuno se ne accorse, e che la loro riscoperta avvenne (emblematicamente) solo nel 1848.
Per il gusto moderno, per la nostra idea di romanzo, le Veglie sono indubbiamente un libro strano, eppure, leggendole sia in una prospettiva storica sia (soprattutto in alcune parti) da un punto di vista del piacere letterario è indubbio che emanano un fascino sinistro, e che rivelano una straordinaria modernità che le può accostare, con un paragone ardito e fatta salva l'atmosfera tipicamente romantica, ad alcune pagine delle avanguardie letterarie novecentesche, come pure ad alcune pagine cinematografiche (ad esempio alcuni film di Bergman e di Dreyer).
Il libro è composto di sedici capitoli (le Veglie) narrati in prima persona dal protagonista, chiamato Kreuzgang (in tedesco chiostro), guardiano notturno incaricato di vegliare sull'ordine della città. Kreuzgang si aggira per vicoli bui, cimiteri, passa accanto a case dove accadono fatti oscuri, incontra strani personaggi, racconta di sé, della sua strana “nascita” (fu trovato dentro un forziere disseppellito da suo padre adottivo), del periodo che ha passato in manicomio e di molte altre cose. Il caos regna sovrano nel libro, sia per l'accavallarsi di momenti descrittivi e speculativi, sia per la mancanza di un ordine cronologico – alcuni racconti vengono interrotti per essere ripresi dopo alcune pagine dedicate ad altri argomenti – sia per lo stesso disordine stilistico che vede pagine di satira sferzante e secca alternarsi a momenti comici e grotteschi e ad altri di intenso lirismo. E' questo caos strutturale che secondo me forma uno degli elementi di maggior fascino e modernità delle Veglie, anche se indubbiamente rappresenta anche l'elemento di maggior impegno per il lettore.
Se la struttura del testo è affascinante, allo stesso modo i contenuti delle Veglie sono sorprendenti nella loro totalità, nella loro radicalità critica rispetto al potere, agli intellettuali, alla religione, alle illusioni di immortalità dell'uomo e delle sue idee: l'autore esprime nelle veglie una Weltanschauung che rasenta (secondo alcuni raggiunge) il nichilismo.
Già l'ambientazione notturna è indicativa: Kreuzgang vive di notte, di notte racconta e di notte osserva il mondo, perché è solo di notte che possono emergere le verità, che l'uomo si confronta con i suoi fantasmi e con le sue paure.
La prima veglia, che secondo me è una delle più belle, anche perché introduce nell'atmosfera cupa e notturna del libro, ci fornisce alcuni elementi interpretativi importanti: il protagonista, infatti, passando sotto la finestra illuminata dietro la quale lavora uno sfortunato poeta perché solo allora i creditori dormivano, e le Muse erano le uniche non aggregate alla schiera, gli si rivolge così: ... ti capisco bene io, perché una volta ero identico a te! Però ho abbandonato questa occupazione in cambio di un mestiere onesto, di cui si può campare […] ed interrompo i sogni d'immortalità di cui tu vagheggi là in alto, rammentandoti puntualmente, sulla terra, del tempo e della caducità.
Kreuzgang era quindi poeta, intellettuale, ma ha riconosciuto l'inutilità della poesia, e prosaicamente constata che, inutilità per inutilità, almeno lui ha di che campare. In una veglia successiva, infatti, il poeta cui viene negata la pubblicazione si impiccherà.
Il tema della caducità, della vacuità e dell'inutilità di ricercare l'immortalità tramite la gloria letteraria o l'esercizio del potere è centrale nelle Veglie, e le accompagna sino allo splendido e tremendo finale, ma è affiancato – come detto – da altri elementi di riflessione, su cui si abbatte con non meno potenza critica la penna dell'autore. L'impossibilità dell'immortalità infatti conduce immediatamente alla critica alla religione ed alla chiesa, e già nella stessa prima veglia vi è un episodio, la morte di un ateo cui invano un prete cerca di far cambiare idea, di grandissima forza satirica. La sesta veglia, in cui il protagonista annuncia alla città che è arrivato il giorno del Giudizio Universale e osserva le reazioni dei vari strati sociali, è forse l'episodio più godibile del libro, e qui prevale chiaramente la critica sociale e politica.
Forse però le Veglie più sconcertanti quanto a modernità delle tematiche trattate sono quelle in cui Kreuzgang riscrive l'amore di Amleto per Ofelia (Shakespeare, in quanto autore capace di mischiare comico e tragico è uno degli idoli dell'autore) come un sentimento legato al ruolo che ai due personaggi è stato affidato, che non è quindi lecito sapere se esista davvero al di fuori di tale ruolo, nel loro vero io. E' Ofelia che si spinge più in là in questa riflessione e conclude così la sua ultima lettera ad Amleto: Così, non potendomi più leggere al di fuori del ruolo che mi è stato assegnato, vi leggerò fino alla fine e all'exeunt omnes, dietro al quale seguirà forse il vero Io. Poi potrò dirvi se esiste qualcosa al di fuori del ruolo, e se l'Io vive e ti ama. Credo che trattandosi di frasi scritte nel 1804 si possa davvero essere colpiti, anche per quell'improvviso, modernissimo e perfetto passaggio dal Voi al Tu.
Moltissime altre cose si potrebbero dire sulle Nachtwachen des Bonaventura: ogni veglia infatti ci riserva una sorpresa, che però lascio al lettore. Avverto solo del fatto che la lettura, per la struttura ed i contenuti del testo di cui ho parlato, richiede una particolare attenzione e concentrazione. Personalmente ho letto il libro due volte di seguito per cercare di addentrarmi meglio in questo testo complesso, che ci svela la radicalità critica che un movimento sfaccettato come il romanticismo ha assunto in alcune sue componenti, radicalità critica che avrebbe innervato di sé una parte importante dell'attività letteraria del XIX e XX secolo.

[Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second read, one nightwatch per night. Very rewarding; was glad to see that a revisit only brought more mysteries. Might do this again next year.

[Ronald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like a traveller who goes to obscure destinations hoping to discover something marvelous, I search for obscure books, hoping to find overlooked treasure. Sometimes that happens. It didn't happen here.

This book was originally published in German in 1804. The English translation seems good. The ebook version I got has an Introduction which comprises around 16 percent of the book. This introduction is like an academic literary analysis. From the Introduction:

"We may reject Bonaventura’s “tantric” vision on religious or philosophic grounds as perverse and therefore unacceptable as genuine art. The historical impediments to receptivity of Bonaventura are less weighty. Each reader will grasp features of the work’s structural complexity according to his or her own familiarity with literature of the period that gave it birth; however, because romantic themes and devices have so deeply affected modern writing, most details in the Nightwatches today possess a basic resonance. The work is obviously a mosaic, but it is not necessary to know about romantic adulation of the fragment as a formal principle in art to sense how Bonaventura, through skillful arrangement , produces turbulence, irregularity, and anxiety, a jaggedness that is the objective correlative to the flow of events in a chaotic universe and mirrors the quirky logic of Kreuzgang’s perceptions. Even the work’s idiosyncratic punctuation, with its frequent use of dashes (—) and leaders (. . .), often in combination with a semicolon or comma, to indicate shift of focus or trailing off of a thought, contributes to the sense of following the movement of a mind. (In the English version, these combinations will be reduced to a dash or leaders only.) There is no simplistic plot line, but the development of interlocking motif patterns provides a narrative rhythm. Initiated readers will recognize further that this motivic variation also permits a running commentary on romantic and earlier thought, for the work almost bursts with allusions, parodies, paraphrases, quotations, and names , bits and pieces of cultural heritage. These appear as elements subordinate to the narrator’s mentality. Here we detect the deep structural impact of Laurence Sterne’s influential first-person novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759– 67). Except that in the case of the Nightwatches, such subjective control by the unknown author finally excludes peace of mind."

Be that as it may, this book didn't grab me. This book is comprised of vignettes. The narrator walks around at night and describes his experiences. In one vignette, the narrator sees an atheist on his deathbed, and a minister threatening eternal damnation unless the atheist converts. In another vignette, the narrator is stalked by some men.

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This profoundly odd work was published anonymously in 1804. Current scholarship identifies the author as August Klingermann, the theater director who first presented Goethe’s Faust. The editor provides much evidence for the case, and the text is filled with theatrical allusions.

The narrator, the night watchman Kreuzgang, presents sixteen chapters or watches. I would call this an experimental novel, but it was written at a time where there were still so few rules for novel writing that such a category wouldn’t have really existed. Any single watch may take the form of a narrative, a satirical rant, a philosophic speculation, a social critique, a nightmare, or more often some combination of these forms. But Kreuzgang is telling his life story in his own fragmented way, and he asks the reader at one point if they are keeping up with “the thread of my story which, quiet and hidden, like a narrow stream, winds through the rocky and sylvan passages that I have heaped up all around.” If put to it, I would have to answer in the negative. There are vivid passages, but also much speechmaking and grand talk that calls out for skimming. But skimming assures that one will be lost in those “rocky and sylvan passages.”

Comic passages stand out. On one night Kreuzgang sounds the alarm not for any garden-variety malfeasance but for the second coming of Christ. On another he finds a group of ardent art lovers worshiping the shattered statues of Greek gods. One young man struggles to climb an armless, headless statue of Aphrodite just to kiss her beautifully sculpted ass. When Kreuzgang gallantly saves a young man from blowing his brains out and rises to impressive rhetorical heights in defending his actions, he discovers he has merely interrupted an actor rehearsing a play.

This is book possibly more interesting to read about that to actually read. Here is a passage from the introduction that says it all and may count as a spoiler:

[Nightwaches] belongs among German and English works of the ending of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century that seem still impassioned about Enlightment causes yet bear unmistakable traits of gothic anxiety and slip inexorably into Romanticism…[T]he strange narrator…probes the story of his own fall from revolutionary aspirations and poetic heights, navigates his way through the deconstruction of new triumphant romantic tenets, and at the end of his story plunges into an abyss of the mind as reliable values collapse.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5 stars

On God, this took ages.

Not a good idea to read everything in one go - if possible, read one Night Watch after another. Please don't be stupid like me and try to read this in one swoop, because it's 50% philosophy of the Enlightenment and oof.

[Natasa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Με τους ρομαντικούς δεν τα βρήκα ποτέ. Ο Γκαίτε και ο Σίλλερ είναι κόκκινες γραμμές για μένα. Για αυτόν εδώ τον νυχτοφύλακα όμως, που καταγράφει τις δεκαέξι νυχτερινές περιπόλους του στα τέλη του 18ου αιώνα, μόνο καλά λόγια έχω να πω. Ο «Μποναβεντούρα» γράφει ακολουθώντας τη δομή και τις επιταγές του ρομαντισμού για να τον γκρεμίσει τελικά με χιούμορ και ειρωνεία, από τα κακοφωτισμένα παράθυρα των κατοίκων της πόλης, μέσα από τα οποία κρυφοκοιτάζει τις ιστορίες τους. Καθαρός μηδενισμός. Θεατής της ζωής (του), μιας ζωής άδικης και παράλλογης, αφηγείται ιστορίες, κάποτε ολοκληρωμένα, κάποτε κατακερματισμένα, αφού σκοπός του είναι να αποδομήσει όσα ο ρομαντισμός πρεσβεύει και να γίνει αρνητής της ζωής, όπως τη γνωρίζει. Με άπειρες σστιρικές αναφορές στον Δάντη, τον Σαίξπηρ, ζωγράφους της εποχής αλλά και τους αρχαίους, γράφει ένα αφήγημα του οποίου η τελευταία λέξη είναι «Τίποτα»...το διάβασα κυρίως τη νύχτα (δεν του πάει η μέρα) και ως επί το πλείστον μειδιάζοντας. Νομίζω ο Μποναβεντούρα ταιριάζει μια νύχτα σαν κι αυτή που έχει πανσέληνο 🌕 και είναι γεμάτοι όρεξη του κόσμου οι ρομαντικοί...

[Hendrik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ernst Jünger lässt den Namen Bonaventura / Klingemann (mir bis dato unbekannt) an einer Stelle in seinem Tagebuch fallen.

Der beste Teil der Romantik: ein beschwörendes Totengespräch. Novalis, Maurice de Guérin, Bonaventura, Chateaubriand. Lord Byron nicht zu vergessen, […]

Und eine düstere, beschwörende Stimmung lässt sich durchaus in den Nachtwachen vernehmen. Der Nachtwächter Kreuzgang, ist ein vom Dasein und der Welt wortwörtlich Ent-täuschter. Mit Abscheu betrachtet er die Nichtigkeit und die Absurdität der menschlichen Existenz. Dieser Charakter weist in seiner Haltung Parallelen zu weit moderneren Autoren auf, wie zum Beispiel Sartre (Der Ekel) oder Beckett. Auch Nietzsche der vermutete:

das Leben sei vielleicht nur eine Form des Todes, und zwar eine sehr seltene

könnte als Seelenverwandter gelten. Im Nachwort meiner Ausgabe wird der Giannozzo von Jean Paul als Vorlage für diesen Roman genannt. Ähnlichkeiten sind erkennbar, aber Bonaventura verfügt über einen eingängigeren Schreibstil. Dunkle Romantik mit philosophischem Unterbau. Das Buch ist einer jener glücklichen Beifänge, die einem bei literarischen Streifzügen eher unerwartet ins Netz gehen.

[Zac Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderous tome, nightly encounters give way to broad movements of madness among lost souls. As macabre as it is enigmatic.

[Kae !! · Rating 4 out of 5]

pfff k librazo!! tiene puntos muy graciosetes e irónicos, fragmentos preeeciosos y puntos filosóficos muy interesantes!! y claro, a esto le sumas k es super importante para el romanticismo alemán-

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Instead of buying this book I read a free translation which was a thesis written by UBC student Elmar Theissen in 1973. It's available online for free, I'll put the link at the end. I did do some translation comparisons with this translation by looking at samples on Google Books. I would say Theissen's translation is respectable, it may even read a bit more smoothly. So this isn't a review of this exact book, but Yay for free stuff.

This is certainly an obscure text to say the least. I haven't read a lot of literature from as far back as 1804, and I am quite impressed how surreal and strange this work is at times. Despite it's age it also feels quite modern in a lot of ways. It's essentially sixteen chapters which feel like loosely connected short stories about a nightwatchman who wanders the streets of his town and witnesses many strange events which engender even stranger reflections in his mind.

The only thing I've read which I could compare it to would be the stories of Bruno Schulz, but that doesn't quite capture it. It's Gothic, decadent and romantic (in an aesthetic, literary sense.) It's also got an addictively quiet, nocturnal and somber mood which I think I enjoyed above all else.

It has a definite nihilistic strain running through the book. The fourth nightwatch is particularly interesting for seeing man as a puppet of fate. This comes up later in a passage from in the eighth nightwatch sounds like something straight out of Thomas Ligotti:

"The skull is never missing behind the flirtatious mask, and life is only the fool's costume that Nothingness has donned in order to tinkle it's bells for a while and then finally to rend it angrily and to discard it. Everything is Nothing and chokes and gulps itself greedily, and this very feeding upon itself is a malicious sham-struggle which fraudulently suggests something is happening while actually, if the gulping would stop just for once, Nothing would appear very clearly so that they would be frightened of it; fools thing that this pause is eternity, but it is really and essentially Nothing and absolute death, since on the contrary life is created only through continuous dying."

He addresses a worm in a graveyard for some final, nihilist reflections in the last nightwatch:

"The king feeds on the marrow of his country, and in turn you feed on him, and thus the king is soon brought back into the lap, or at least into the bellies, of his loyal subjects [...] What is the world if its thoughts are nothing, if everything is but a fleeting illusion! What is the use of earth's dreams, the use of spring and of flowers, if the dreams fade inside the house of the grave, if here in the final Pantheon, all gods must stumble from their pedestals until worms and decay take possession. [...] Up above us, innumerable stars sparkle and float in the sea of heaven, but if they are worlds, as many clever heads insist, there are also skulls and worms upon them, like down here; and so it continues through the whole of infinity..."

This book does tangent off at times into what I can only call philosophical rambles in the form of prose poetry. It's all fairly loose narrative-wise, ideas are raised and dropped -- you just have to go with it. This type of reading won't be for everyone and might be best digested in parts instead of reading straight through. Still, something about this book kept me interested. I liked the imagery, the dark reflections and it kept surprising me.

https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/co...

[Tighy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best and most disturbing work of prose I've read lately, linking a whole series of gloomy, fantastic situations and images full of skeptical humor. The night watchman, an exalted and somewhat bizarre fellow unravels his memories, his inner or outer experiences, his desire to tore apart masks and clichés and reach the upper threshold of spontaneity and authenticity which will brig only conflicts with the people around him. Using the means of satire, irony and parody, he reveals with cynical detachment the evil that dwells in man. At one point, however, it would seem that love is still an exception, but reality does not confirm it. In the end, in the face of nothingness and not having the strong support of an ideal, he will adopt a nihilistic, skeptical attitude, which will bring him the much dreamed apocalypse, the solstice point, the zero hour, when everything sleeps and only the dead rise from their graves and live again. There the overfeed worm comes out of his father's coffin confirming the night watchman philosophy.

[Acer Pseudoplantatus · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Die Nachtwachen des Bonaventura" verdient die Bezeichnung "außergewöhnlich" alle mal.
Diese als fiktives Memoir dargestellte Satire ist oftmals poetisch - auch wenn sie Romantiker und deren Dichtung mal direkt, mal durch Subtext verspottet - , voller (Selbst-)Ironie (da z.B.: die Prosa poetischer ist als das als Dichtkunst dargestellte) und sehr Vielseitig; Es werden verschiedenste Aspekte der Welt und des "Mensch Seins" die Geschichte wird in verschiedensten Formen erzählt, einmal sogar in zwei Versionen und einige Male widerspricht sich der Erzähler und hält Polemiken gegen das, wofür er sich geäußert hatte und obwohl er sich als Zyniker und Menschenhasser darstellen will, so widerspricht sein Handeln und Denken oft dieser Kategorisierung.
Es gibt phantastische und fantastische Stellen, jedoch auch ein paar morbide und gar zynische.
Der Stil ist vortrefflich; auch wenn von Zeit zu Zeit manche Sätze gar Überlänge haben.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent novel but, in my opinion, a troublesome translation, which often befuddled me and had me reaching for the free 1973 ET Theissen translation linked below, which isn’t perfect (both translations at alternating times will occasionally describe the details of a scene wrong), but often flows smoothly when the 2014 translation becomes bewildering. The upside to this new edition is the notes and afterword.
I highly recommend having this free PDF on your phone or Kindle for reference.

https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/str...

[Gentress]

Just received this in the mail today....very excited to read this "true child of romantic agony" written anonymously in 1804.

"Man writes the script of the world theatre, but it is a tale told by an idiot."

[Аnna Beria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you’re interested in Hegel, critical theory, negative dialectics, philosophy of art or psychoanalysis (Freud or Lacan), this is a must-read !

[Φώτης Καραμπεσίνης · Rating 5 out of 5]

Δίκης οφθαλμός περιπολεί ακάματα σε μικρή γερμανική πόλη στα τέλη του 18ου αιώνα. Ο Νυχτοφύλακας ξαγρυπνά όταν οι άλλοι κοιμούνται, παρακολουθώντας τα τεκταινόμενα. Παρέα του, παρίες που αρνούνται να παραδοθούν στην αγκαλιά του Μορφέα για τους δικούς τους λόγους. Ο παρατηρητής-Νυχτοφύλακας προστατεύει και ταυτόχρονα ιστορεί, παρεμβαίνοντας συχνά όταν απαιτεί η κατάσταση, όντας ο ίδιος μετέχων. Οι 16 περίπολοί του λαμβάνουν χώρα σε αυτό το μικρής έκτασης αλλά ιδιαίτερης σπουδαιότητας βιβλίο αγνώστου συγγραφέα που προτίμησε να το παραδώσει σε έναν όπως πάντα ανεπίδεκτο και ανέτοιμο κόσμο με το ψευδώνυμο Μποναβεντούρα.


Οι «Νυχτερινές Περίπολοι» αρδεύονται από δύο πηγές: Ρομαντισμό και Σαίξπηρ. Πρόκειται για ένα εντυπωσιακό αμάλγαμα, καθώς θεωρητικά οι καταστατικές αρχές του ενός θα προσέκρουαν σε εκείνες του άλλου. Σε πρακτικό επίπεδο ο Ρομαντικός Μποναβεντούρα αφήνεται στις μελαγχολικές και πεισιθάνατες ποιητικές παρεμβολές του, προτάσσοντας το μελανό, το νυκτιφαές (η δράση εξελίσσεται πάντα τη διάρκεια της νύχτας), αφουγκραζόμενος τα καταραμένα πλάσματα, άντρες και γυναίκες, συχνά με γκροτέσκο τρόπο, απομονώνοντάς τα, αλλά και τον εαυτό του, από τον κοινωνικό περίγυρο κατά τα πρότυπα του Βυρωνικού ήρωα. Οι χώροι αντίστοιχοι: νεκροταφείο, εκκλησία, ψυχιατρείο, η σιγή συνήθως νεκρική οπότε διακόπτεται από το παραλήρημα του πάσχοντος, από τις κραυγές του νοσούντος και το πένθος των μοιρολογούντων.

Ο ίδιος ο Νυχτοφύλακας, κάποια στιγμή, θα αρχίσει να ιστορεί μέσα από Φρενοκομείο, εξαπολύοντας τα βέλη του κατά παντός, υπενθυμίζοντάς μας ότι σε κοινωνίες υγιών κανονικοποιημένων πολιτών, μόνο ένας «τρελός» μπορεί να είναι πραγματικά ελεύθερος. Ο Διαφωτιστής Μποναβεντούρα δεν θα δείξει έλεος σε καμία από τις αρχές της εποχής του μέσα από το Φρενοκομείο. Έγκλειστος μεν, αλλά ταυτόχρονα ουσιαστικά ελεύθερος θα πυροδοτήσει μικρές νάρκες που ο ανύποπτος αναγνώστης θα πατήσει με μεγάλη του χαρά για να τις δει να εκρήγνυνται, ώστε για μια ακόμα φορά να θεαθεί τον εαυτό του όχι όπως είναι στη γλίσχρα καθημερινότητά του, αλλά όπως θα τον είχε ίσως οραματιστεί, με όχημα πάντα τη φαντασία του καλλιτέχνη.

Ταυτόχρονα, όταν ο Μποναβεντούρα δείχνει να παρασύρεται από τον ρομαντικό του οίστρο, κινδυνεύοντας να περάσει σύσσωμος στη σκοτεινή πλευρά της αυτολύπησης και της, ούτως ειπείν, επιφανειακά λυρικής πλευράς του Ρομαντισμού, ορθώνεται το φάντασμα του Βάρδου και ο δραματικός (εκ του Δράματος) τόνος κυριαρχεί, προσφέροντας το απαραίτητο αντίβαρο. Ο απόλυτος στίχος που από τότε που γράφτηκε κανείς ποτέ δεν τόλμησε να τον αγνοήσει, είναι πανταχού παρών σε αυτό το βιβλίο: «’Όλος ο κόσμος μια σκηνή». Theatrum mundi λοιπόν, κάτι που παραπέμπει βεβαίως στον Δημόκριτο («Ο κόσμος σκηνή, ο βίος πάροδος. Ήλθες, είδες, απήλθες») και σε πολλούς ακόμα που προϋπήρξαν του Σαίξπηρ. Είναι όμως ο Βάρδος που πάνω και πέρα από όλους περιέκλεισε το κωμικοτραγικό, τη συνολική ανθρώπινη εμπειρία, σε αθάνατους στίχους.

Και ο Μποναβεντούρα το γνωρίζει και κάνει κάτι πραγματικά αξιοθαύμαστο, συνδέοντας τον μέλανα Ρομαντισμό του που είναι, ας μου επιτραπεί, απόχρωση, στην ουσία και το βάθος που σηματοδοτεί το σαιξπηρικό όραμα για το υπάρχον. Ο τρόπος με τον οποίο ο Σαίξπηρ τοποθετούσε τον θεατή στη θέση του ηθοποιού, και το αντίστροφο συχνά, στα έργα του, η αμφισημία, η εναλλαγή του τραγικού με το κωμικό, η ίδια η έννοια του Τρελού που το ελευθεριακό του χιούμορ οξειδώνει ό,τι έρχεται σε επαφή μαζί του, ο άκρατος μηδενισμός και η απέχθειά του μέσω ηρώων όπως ο Φάλσταφ για την κρατική εξουσία, που ο Άγγλος οδήγησε στα απώτατά όριά τους, έχουν απλώσει βαθιές ρίζες στο βιβλίο.

Σε κάποιο σημείο, ο συγγραφέας βάζει τη δική του, τιμής ένεκεν, Οφηλία να λέει: «Ο ρόλος τελειώνει αλλά το Εγώ παραμένει, και θάβουν μόνο τον ρόλο…πίσω από το έργο αρχινά το Εγώ!» και ο αναγνώστης υπομειδιά αναλογιζόμενος το πώς η Τέχνη «παίζει ἐν οὐ παικτοῖς», περιγελώντας ταυτότητες, κοινούς τόπους και αξίες, συγχέοντας πρόσωπα, προσωπεία και ζωές. Ο Βάρδος στέκεται στο παρασκήνιο και χειροκροτεί ειρωνικά το κοινό του, το οποίο με τη σειρά του όση ώρα παρακολουθεί έχει ενδυθεί μια διαφορετική μορφή, έναν χαρακτήρα, αναμένοντας να επανέλθει στο Εγώ του (ποιο άραγε είναι αυτό;) όταν ολοκληρωθεί η παράσταση ή όταν εκμετρήσει το ζην – όποιο έρθει πρώτο.

Ο Ρομαντικός Μποναβεντούρα θα αναλάβει εκ νέου τα ηνία στο κλείσιμο του βιβλίου, στη 16η νυχτερινή περίπολο, όποτε στο σκηνικό του νεκροταφείου, μέσα από τον τάφο θα ακουστεί για τελευταία φορά η επωδός: «Τίποτα!». Το βιβλίο θα ολοκληρωθεί εκεί. Δεν έχει μείνει κάτι άλλο να ειπωθεί. Οι ηθοποιοί και οι θεατές θα επιστρέψουν στα καμαρίνια και τις ζωές τους, αναμένοντας το ξημέρωμα μιας ακόμα ημέρας.

https://fotiskblog.home.blog/2023/08/...

[Hannah Klös · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich weiß nicht so recht, wie ich das Buch bewerten und einordnen soll. Ich weiß nicht so recht, was ich aus diesem kurzen Roman mitnehmen soll und habe das Gefühl, oft einige Ebenen nicht verstanden zu haben. Stellenweise hat mich das Gelesene unterhalten und grundsätzlich habe ich schon auch den Inhalt verstanden, habe aber das Gefühl, viele Referenzen nicht in vollem Umfang verstanden zu haben. Das Problem hierbei ist dann aber auch, dass sich die Hauptdiskussion nicht um den Inhalt dreht, sondern vielmehr um die Verfasserfrage, sodass es schwierig ist, tiefergehende Informationen zum Inhalt zu bekommen. Kreuzgangs Geschichte ist nicht uninteressant, aber durch das sehr chaotische Element schwer einzuordnen, wenn entsprechender Kontext fehlt.

[NN · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a trip! I was 18 when I read Sartre's Nausea and at the time I felt every single page was written especially for me. Now at 36, I feel the same about this absolute gem, which masterfully blends humor, philosophy and horror into a heady concoction that goes down surprisingly easily all the same. There's a suicidal poet, a cabbalistic necromancer, a puppet theatre running into trouble with the authorities, a stint in the madhouse, the wandering jew makes an appearance, there's laughter, there's despair and everything in between. In fact, while reading it occurred to me humor, horror and philosophy might be be mere aspects of one and the same thing, much as Plato argued the True, the Good and the Beautiful to be One (I will not run the risk of drawing a blasphemous parallel with another trinity).

Drop what you're doing and pick up this book.

[Sean Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this very hard to read in the sense that it took me forever. Although I was intrigued by the episodic structure which allowed me to come back to it after taking breaks, and I liked the dark comedy I kept wondering if the translation had something to do with the lack of flow. Funny part is I am wondering if reading it again would be easier now that i have a basic familiarity.

[KONSTANTINOS ANASTASILAKIS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μια φιλοσοφική commedia dell' arte. Ευφυές το καυστικό χιούμορ, διασκεδαστική η παιγνιώδης θεατρικότητα, ευπρόσδεκτος ο χείμαρρος μηδενισμού... Αλλά στον πυρήνα του έργου, υπάρχει το ΤΙΠΟΤΑ!!! Σαν μια λουστραρισμενη ταινία, πανέμορφη στο μάτι αλλά άψυχη και εντέλει αδιάφορη (περισσότερο Μαλικ παρά Κιούμπρικ ή Ταρκοφσκυ)

[Mathias · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a nice book - 2.5 stars. But there's really not something to be said by me that hasn't already been said.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

woa

[Cristian Mocanu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fost o carte foarte bună. Îi lipsea mai multă mișcare și mai puțină contemplație ca să fie una excepțională

[Joël · Rating 5 out of 5]

If E. A. Poe wrote "Notes from the Underground"

[Klaus Nöd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Υψηλό. Πολύ υψηλό. Ωραία μετάφραση κι επίμετρο. Να ξαναδιαβαστεί.

[kathryn (le livre en rose) · Rating 3 out of 5]

please someone free me from my romanticism class

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

what?