Peter Handke by Nicholas Hern (review)

464 BOOK REVIEWS sureness and competence. Despite its brevity, his study is neither a mere compilation of dates and names, nor a superficial inventory of Valle-IncHm's contributions; rather, it brings forth the most up-to-date interpretations of the Spanish master in a very succinct way. A slightly disappointing feature is the tendency to overextend the plot descriptions; this limits the author's criticism of style and structure. Those scholars who are already well acquainted with Valle-Inclan will find nothing provocative in this book; however, it does present a concise re-examination of the integral Valle-Inclan. To the unfamiliar reader, the new student of the Spanish master or anyone who would like a brief and modern view of Valle-Inclan's artistic achievements, I would especially recommend that they spend a couple of enjoyable hours with this fine little book. ERMINIO G. NEGLIA University of Toronto PETER HANDKE, by Nicholas Hern. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1972. 110 pp. $5.00. The American edition of Nicholas Hem's monograph is a prime example of the idiocies of transatlantic republication of books originally issued in England. Nicholas Hern's monograph on the Austrian avantgarde poet, dramatist and novelist Peter Handke originally appeared in 1971 in a series issued by the London firm of Oswald Wolff and called "Modern German Authors, Texts and Contexts." Apart from brief explications of eight of Handke's dramatic pieces, it contained an anthology of extracts from these pieces. Moreover the book was subtitled, "Theatre and Anti-Theatre," thus making it clear that it concentrated on Handke's output as a writer for the theatre. So what happens? Obviously for copyright reasons the American reprint omits the anthology of texts. Which makes the short explications which refer to and rely on the examples of actual writing which follow somewhat incomplete. Then, to make the book appear more general and comprehensive than it is, the subtitle referring to Handke as a dramatist is omitted. The book now merely sails under the general running title of "Modern Literature Monographs." It is, of course, particularly unfortunate that Handke, who had published two or three longer works of prose narrative when the monograph first appeared in England, actually achieved recognition as the leading German prose writer with two immensely successful and deeply impressive works (destined to be regarded as masterpieces of German prose) in the following year. So that the American edition simply omits what is by now recognised as the portion of his work which will really make Handke, who is only just about thirty years old, a significant name in German literature. All this might be forgiven, if the American edition were merely are-issue of the relevant pages of the English booklet. But no, it has been entirely re-set! Why, if that was being done anyway, the author was not asked to bring the book up to date, will remain a mystery. BOOK REVIEWS 465 The point of the foregoing carpings is simply that the end product, the truncated fragment of a book which is by now cruelly out of date and misleadingly subtitled, is greatly unfair to the author, who, within the context in which he was originally cOIJlmissioned and at the time he wrote his book, produced a very workmanlik,e analysis of the plays of a fascinating and important young author. There are, of course, points which one can criticize: very little is said by Hern about Handke's Austrian, apd specifically Carinthian, background which, to anyone familiar with it, shin~s through even his most abstract work, both in the colour of the language which is full of regional allusions and in the cultural assumptions about rules and regulations and respectable good manners which underlie it. For example: Hern says that the word Einsager which Handke uses for the voices that indoctrinate Kaspar in the play of that title is "a made-up word" (pp. 61-2). Anyone who has gone to school in Austria could tell him that Einsager is Austrian schoolboy slang for someone who helps his friend during an examination by whispering the correct answer under his breath. The method of taking one play after...