Tea at Trianon: The Wall

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

The Wall

Many books have been written about the Shoah, and many more will be in the future. Few, however, are as haunting and utterly heart-wrenching as The Wall, which takes the reader inside the head of a man who has survived the hell on earth of the Nazi death camps. The Wall is not only a literary masterpiece, but literary history is made as well. Translated by Peter Filkins, this edition is the first English version of the magnum opus of H. G. Adler, scholar and Holocaust survivor. The novel is the continuous stream of consciousness of its protagonist, Arthur Landau, a former professor, who returns to his native city like one come back from the dead. He is overwhelmed by the feeling that he himself no longer exists as he stumbles into people he used to know as well as new acquaintances, who try ineffectually to help him. Written without chapter breaks, the story veers from reality to dreams to memories and back to reality again, as Arthur tries to absorb everything he has survived as well as the basic fact that he is still alive. While few experiences compare to the horrors of a concentration camp, many who have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder will identify with the main character’s sense of alienation and dissociation. It is only through the healing relationship with his loving wife, Joanna, and having the courage to start a family does Arthur begin to find a foothold in the world, and see life as a gift instead of a curse.

This review originally appeared in the February 2015 edition of The Historical Novels Review.

(*NOTE: The Wall was sent to me by the Historical Novel Society in exchange for my honest opinion.)

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