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Manas
Manas is an epic novel in free verse, an extraordinary blend of Hindu mythology and existentualism depicting in a language of enormous vigour and many voices a mesmerizing story of love, death and rebirth
- GenresFiction
409 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1927
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 28, 2024
"There was no more rain.
Storms shredded the black clouds hither and down
From the eastern iceheads of Himalaya,
Blew them into mountains and cedar forests
Onto blooming meadows, southerly slopes,
This bedlam of beasts and trees -
Euphorbia acacia stands of bamboo -
Tossed them, torrents and ice-needles,
Over sheer rockwalls, seething hills and spates,
Over rivers, -
They raced thundering down deep valleys,
Kosi, Alaknanda, Yamuna,
Surged onto the radiant plains of India! -
Storms shredded the black clouds away,
Howled."
Manas is at first glance a bit of a difficult epic of Döblins to classify.
Clocking in at a 13,000 line epic poem about a Hindu god attempting to achieve full consciousness, it serves as a transitional piece to Berlin Alexanderplatz where he is concentrating on the individual and is a further exploration of the lyrical style he explored in Mountains Oceans Giants, but metamorphosing into an actual poetic verse form. Manas is an existential piece as well.
Döblin uses the Field of the Dead as an exploration of his depression in the mid to late 1920's owing to the failed reception of his early BA works and there are punctuation less, comma less verse lines in various parts of the poem.
Savitri acts as a stand in for Döblin's mistress in the 1920's, the photographer Charlotte Niclas, and Manas's rebirth through the love of Savitri is almost a prelude to Döblin's successful breakthrough in his writing career with BA.
It's filled with repetition, and it courts comparisons to the Ramayana and Mahabharata. In many ways, the existential struggle for the soul and spirit of Manas seems to foreshadow Franz Biberkopf's spiritual struggle in the closing parts of Berlin Alexanderplatz. Reading the poem can be a difficult but richly rewarding experience for those trying to find clues to Döblin's stylistic development up to Berlin Alexanderplatz.
"He is not extinguished. Not extinguished.
Manas is not extinguished."
Storms shredded the black clouds hither and down
From the eastern iceheads of Himalaya,
Blew them into mountains and cedar forests
Onto blooming meadows, southerly slopes,
This bedlam of beasts and trees -
Euphorbia acacia stands of bamboo -
Tossed them, torrents and ice-needles,
Over sheer rockwalls, seething hills and spates,
Over rivers, -
They raced thundering down deep valleys,
Kosi, Alaknanda, Yamuna,
Surged onto the radiant plains of India! -
Storms shredded the black clouds away,
Howled."
Manas is at first glance a bit of a difficult epic of Döblins to classify.
Clocking in at a 13,000 line epic poem about a Hindu god attempting to achieve full consciousness, it serves as a transitional piece to Berlin Alexanderplatz where he is concentrating on the individual and is a further exploration of the lyrical style he explored in Mountains Oceans Giants, but metamorphosing into an actual poetic verse form. Manas is an existential piece as well.
Döblin uses the Field of the Dead as an exploration of his depression in the mid to late 1920's owing to the failed reception of his early BA works and there are punctuation less, comma less verse lines in various parts of the poem.
Savitri acts as a stand in for Döblin's mistress in the 1920's, the photographer Charlotte Niclas, and Manas's rebirth through the love of Savitri is almost a prelude to Döblin's successful breakthrough in his writing career with BA.
It's filled with repetition, and it courts comparisons to the Ramayana and Mahabharata. In many ways, the existential struggle for the soul and spirit of Manas seems to foreshadow Franz Biberkopf's spiritual struggle in the closing parts of Berlin Alexanderplatz. Reading the poem can be a difficult but richly rewarding experience for those trying to find clues to Döblin's stylistic development up to Berlin Alexanderplatz.
"He is not extinguished. Not extinguished.
Manas is not extinguished."
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November 18, 2021The 1920s, literature's wild years. though you'll have to wander many halls of the Great Library to view this exhibit.
September 1, 2025
Read the English version, was astounded by the poetry of the prose, the incredible account, mimetic of great Indian epics.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews