Victor Halfwit: A Winter's Tale

by Thomas Bernhard

One night in the middle of winter, as deep snow covers the mountains and forests, a doctor is crossing the ridge in Austria from Traich to Föding to see a patient. He stumbles over a body in the darkness and fears it is a corpse. But it’s not a corpse at all. In fact, it’s wooden-legged Victor Halfwit, collapsed, but still very much alive. So begins this simultaneously absurd and tragic tale by celebrated Austrian playwright, novelist, and poet Thomas Bernhard. Combining the darkly comic voice and vision of Bernhard with the lush and beautiful collages of Indian designer Sunandini Banerjee, Victor Halfwit is a unique and collectible artist’s book. Illustrated in color throughout, this edition imaginatively presents Bernhard’s fable in a distinctive and unconventional style. It is the perfect gift book that will be cherished by fans of Bernhard’s other works and will inspire new interest among visual artists.

Genres: Fiction, Art, German Literature, Graphic Novels

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

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

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

On what would have been the 88th birthday of Thomas Bernhard, the most important Western writer of the 2nd half of the 20th Century, and 3 days before the 30th anniversary of his death,

On my way through the high forest, I stumbled over a man called Victor Halfwit, who didn’t have any legs.

Thomas Bernhard's short story, Viktor Halbnarr: Ein Wintermärchen nicht nur für Kinder, was originally published in 1966 in the anthology of childrens' tales „Dichter erzählen Kindern“. It has been translated into English as Victor Halfwit: A Winter's Tale (the subtitle 'Not just for children' dropped, perhaps as it is unnecessary given the form of publication).

The story has our narrator, a physician, walking, in the depths of winter and in the hour before midnight, through the high forest between Traich and Föding to visit a patient, and practising his wading-in-the snow skills (Bernhard's original used a neologism compound-word Durchdenschneewartekünste), when he literally stumbles across Victor Halfwit. The story goes on to tell us how the man lost his legs, why he was in the forest and how the doctor helps him achieve his aim (ultimately to win enough money to buy a pair of handmade shoes).

In the original it was a handful of pages long, but in English, translated by Martin Chalmers (*), it comes, courtesy of the wonderful Seagull Books as a 208 page coffee-table style book (the pages are c30cm*20cm in size), as the text, presented more as a prose poem, is accompanied by stunning artwork from Sunandini Banerjee, using a collage-like technique.

One example (more can be found at the illustrator's Facebook page):



Banerjee's artwork doesn't attempt to illustrate so much show the story as represent an artistic response to it.

In German, a distinct set of artwork was produced, in 2006, in response to the book: drawings by Alfons Schweiggert, which are more grotesque cartoons of the story itself:



Overall: unusually the great Bernhard is eclipsed here, although that his text, even a simple children's story, can produce such artistic responses is a testament to its power. But Banerjee's is the star of the show and the overall book makes for a lovely keepsake for the Bernhard fan.

3.5 stars
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* To update my list of Bernhard's many English translators:

Of works I have read, I note Ewald Osers (The Cheap Eaters, Yes & Old Masters, also an earlier translation of Woodcutters), David McLintock (Concrete, Wittgenstein's Nephew, Extinction & Woodcutters), Sophie Wilkins (Lime Works & Correction), Martin Chalmers (Prose and Victor Halfwit), Peter Jansen (Three Novellas - Amras), Kenneth Northcott (Voice Imitators & Three Novellas - Playing Watten & Walking), Michael Hoffman (Frost), Richard and Clara Winston (Gargoyle), Laura Lindgren (Thomas Bernhard: 3 days), James Reidel (Goethe Dies), Jack Dawson (Loser), Carol Brown Janeway (My Prizes), Meredith Oakes and Andrea Tierney (Heldenplatz), Russell Stockman (On the Mountain). And in addition I'm aware of translations by Gita Honneger (author also of a biography of Bernhard), Michael Mitchell, David Horrocks, Peter Eyre & Tom Cairns (various stories, plays and poems), as well as Douglas Robertson (various unauthorised translations, including The Cheap Eaters - http://shirtysleeves.blogspot.com/201...).

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guess I'm in the minority here. This is a short story by Thomas Bernhard paired with some graphic art. The story would normally fill 3 - 5 pages, but here is stretched to 96 pages. The writing is excellent, and reading one sentence every two to three pages gave me a great appreciation of the structure of and humor in the story, but the art work is atrocious and bears absolutely no relation to the text. God only knows what the Tin Man and Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz and a Pink Floyd record are doing in here.

I'm considering typing the story into this Goodreads review to save others the $30 price tag.

[Calzean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is it a coffee table book? A book of pictures with some words? Or a book of words with some pictures?
The short tale is humorous and some of the Monty Python-esq art work matches well. It's cute but not sure it worked as a package.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had been sitting unnoticed on the shelf for years; how it fell into my hands, I'm not sure -- from the publisher, I imagine. I decided to give it a look before (probably) dropping it in the Little Free Library down the street. "Victor Halfwit" is a very short story, blown up to a hilarious length (and trim size). Each page features a few lines of text against a lavish collage. This is minor Bernhard, to be sure, but the parable-like story is told with recognizable Bernhardian anxiety, and I enjoyed the absurd sumptuousness of the package. Four stars is a bit high; this is by no means a must-read. But as a self-proclaimed "winter's tale," it fits the bill, at least for the next few frigid weeks.

[Stuart · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novelty publication more than anything else, this very short story is drawn out page by page across a backdrop of images that vary in degrees of interest, illustrating, as they often do, what is happening in the story but not always in obvious ways. More of an art installation than literature, the clever little tale feels more like an extended joke than a work of fiction, but in its social commentary somewhat redeems the tedium one starts to feel as they turn page after page of buildup that feels unsatisfying no matter how striking the images may be.

[Robert Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a BIG book with a little story, but in this case, it is the illustrations that make the book. This book is Dada , and if you accept the book as being in the form of Dadaism , then it deserves more appreciation. The story itself is rather oblique and concerns a legless man in pursuit of a bet which would enable him to buy a pair of boots. The collage illustrations pair with each point in the story in subtle connections. For example:

Without a moments hesitation, because I had to get to my patient as quickly as possible, I lifted him onto my shoulders.,

with the accompanying pictures showing Atlas lifting the world upon his shoulders, and the March Hare from Alice in Wonderland staring at his pocket watch. Other connections are more cryptic, and the reader is free to decipher the images as he or she pleases. The illustrator, Sunandini Banerjee is from Calcutta, and so invariably inserts the occasional Hindu deity.

[M. Sarki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not sure how I feel about having Pink Floyd mixed in with my Bernhard reading. But the book is beautiful, an art book, and I am not sure if it works, the art that is, but the words do and that is why I bought it. Nice fable that isn't preachy and works rather nicely all in all. A book Seymour Glass may have read to his little sister Franny at her bedside if it had been available back before he killed himself with a single shot to the head.

[Earl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Translated by Martin Chalmers
Illustrated by Sunandini Baneriee

Size matters. At least, when it comes to books, size helps to stand out on a shelf. “Victor Halfwit” definitely stood out in the fiction section of the library. With over 200 pages, this is surprisingly just a very short story translated from German. What makes this so unique is the absurd collages by Sunandini Baneriee befitting an equally absurd tale that asks “What would you do for a pair of boots?”

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is first and foremost an art book. A short fable by Thomas Bernhard is presented with a series of colourful, eccentric illustrations by Sunandini Banerjee. The tale is charming and tinged with classic Bernhard dark humour, but as a whole, this is a celebration of the book itself as a work of art. Seagull takes books seriously and never fails to deliver a fine product. Ideal for lovers of Bernhard or for lovers of graphic art - or both - this book is a treat.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

trans. Martin Chalmers, 2011.
illus. Sunandini Banerjee

Stripped of heroism and all things epic, the legless Halfwit is piggybacked out of the forest by our unnamed doctor. It's partly a tale about living in defiance: disabled people are often described and venerated for "overcoming" their odds. Able-bodied people take a lot for granted; quite frequently, they don't see how patronising it is to pat disabled people on their backs for simply living life. Instead of your typical triumph into the light narrative, the "darkly comic" element takes reign, saying defiance isn't a game of hopscotch or making it over hurdles -- you just live through it -- psychologically, spiritually, and physically. Ironically, the doctor doesn't know if he's truly helping or hindering Halfwit, which brings his elevated status as a medical professional down to that of a running, bumbling prick.

re: the visuals -- the collage style detracted from the text a great deal. It felt like the illustrator was shooting for a children's book that takes itself too seriously. Perhaps the hodgepodge of stock-like images are supposed to induce the same absurdity seen in the text. The result feels like a botched cross-over between The Aeneid and Alice in Wonderland, which leaves one feeling confused and unmoved.

[Lisa McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Thomas Bernhard, but I think I might love the illustrator, Sunandini Banerjee, even more. I basically want to buy another copy of this book, pull out all the pages, frame them, and live the rest of my life surrounded by these pages on the walls.

[Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very short story in a very big totally illustrated shiny pages book. Excellent

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The large format of this book intrigued me and I couldn't resist reading this book. With only one sentence per page, it is a quick visual treat. Beautiful and ironic.

[Lee Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little fable, a quick tale, like Kafka's "The Country Doctor," complete with a page-turner race to beat the clock. Few phrases per highly designed high-art reference-heavy collaged page. I liked it more the faster I moved through it, the less I analyzed surreal collaged juxtapositions of Popeye, Van Gogh, Cary Grant, much Alice in Wonderland imagery, and just let it burble and blur behind the text so it felt like a dream, the page turned before I made too many associations. A quick read but worth it since I'll return to it. An ideal Xmas gift for all those stoner lit snobs on your list. Or better yet: it's a great children's book: a freaky little allegory, illustrated to the best of the digital age's abilities, perfect for lit snob moms and dads and their wee lil' lit snob spawn.

[Suzanne Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't a book about its story, which as other reviewers have said is a small piece on many levels. That's the hanger, so to speak, not the clothing hung on it. This is a book about Sunandini Banerjee's extraordinary imagination--her use of color, her juxtapositions of images from myriad periods and sources--and, secondarily, the possibilities of digital art. It worked for me because and not despite the fact that the text on each page spread was so spare; there's too much going on visually to require much more narration. Definitely not a book for anyone who's actually looking for the text; definitely recommended for those who love gorgeous books and rich digital art.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-illustrated shaggy-dog story by Bernhard. The story itself probably wouldn't take up more than one or one-and-a-half full pages, but the collages that illustrate the story (collages filled with visual puns) make the book as large as it is. The illustrations also bring to the fore the usually droll humor of Bernhard's prose, here smoothly translated so you can hear the narrator talking to you--a crucial element to Bernhard's style.

[Axolotl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures---if not completely to my taste---interesting compositions arrangements and the colors!---the book is huge---the story, as others have noted, is slight and is odd (not odd considering the writer really) but well-told and classic Bernhard somehow---seems kind of like an outtake of a story by The Prince from Bernhard's own "Gargoyles". As always with Berhard, one wonders what gets lost in translation.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short story, told with a phrase on each page, paired with images. The art was surreal and it mashed together images from across time and space and medium. I found this story by chance in the library, because the book was so large that it stuck out from the shelf. Very unusual and interesting.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lush, complex collages by Sunandini Banerjee make each turning-of-the-page a surprise, a revelation, and an interpretation of the progress of the parable-like story of a doctor and a man with no legs who wishes for shoes. "Is he crazy?" Or are we all like him in some way?

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated book, with a strange chilly tale by Bernhard. Very pleasing.

[Charles Kell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great little Bernhardian tale...a children's book of sorts. Beautiful pictures! Just a nice book.

[Chiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

i think i love this.

[Hana b · Rating 5 out of 5]

great little story, and excellent graphics to illustrate.

[g]

remember to read the illustrated edition http://www.indiebound.org/book/978190...

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very simple story that, on its own, wouldn’t amount to much, but in combination with the artwork, I thought it was superb. A wonderful, strange book that is entirely about the experience of wandering through it - I loved it.