© S. Fischer Verlag
Reading Vienna
What do you do when you can't go traveling? That's right, you go traveling in your mind. And the best way to do that is to put your smartphone aside and open a good book on Vienna.
Vienna has always stimulated the imagination of artists and writers to produce their very best works. A city that is muse, source of inspiration, and place of action all rolled into one. And that's good for us. Because there are still many books and novels by Austrian and international writers that celebrate Vienna as their leading lady. Browse through Vienna's best stories with us.
Top 6 books on Vienna by Austrian writers
Robert Musil | 1930: You need plenty of time and patience to tackle this book – but it's worth it. Musil's 1700-page work was divided into three volumes and tells the story of the mathematician Ulrich, the 'Man Without Qualities'. He wants to take a year's 'leave from life' and so starts working as secretary for his cousin Diotima. The central topic for Musil is the dilemma of the modern person. Because his tries to find a deeper meaning of life in an increasingly fast-paced, demystified world. Something that's more relevant than ever.
– © rororo Verlag
Joseph Roth | 1938: The end of an era. Well, perhaps the end of a state – as described by Joseph Roth in his novel 'The Emperor's Tomb'. Lieutenant Franz Ferdinand Trotta wistfully bids farewell and retrospectively tells of his beloved Danube Monarchy, the long journey to the Republic and finally Austria's annexation to the Third Reich in 1938. 'The Emperor's Tomb' is Joseph Roth's last work published during his lifetime.
– © dtv Verlag
Stefan Zweig | 1942 (posthumous): It is a look back at a long-forgotten world, yet Stefan Zweig's 'The World of Yesterday' has lost none of its relevance. His last novel, which was published posthumously, is also his most famous. It tells of his lost life. In it, he sketches how everything he once held dear and precious is crumbling and being dismantled around him. Zweig's work is much more than a modern witness statement. It is an homage to time that once was and a warning for how it should never be again.
– © S. Fischer Verlag
Heimito von Doderer | 1951: 'The Strudelhof Steps' is not just a set of in Vienna's 9th district. It is also the name of a great Austrian novel and acts as the pivot for the story of the upper class Stangeler family. The book is a roundelay of secret loves and full of the kind of forbidden adultery that only a great leading lady can bring to life. And that is Vienna itself. And so we dream with Doderer about the majestic Vienna between 1911 and 1925.
– © dtv Verlag
Elfriede Jelinek | 1983: Erika Kohut is a piano teacher at the Vienna Conservatory. She is in her mid-thirties, still living with her domineering mother, and unable to get away from her. Since she was born, the mother has been controlling and drilling her daughter and becoming increasingly possessive of her. 'The Piano Teacher' is a powerfully worded novel with which Elfriede Jelinek caused a worldwide sensation. The book was also filmed in 2001 by the director Michael Haneke, with the French actress Isabelle Huppert starring as Erika.
– © rororo Verlag
Robert Seethaler | 2012: Franz loves Anezka. And Franz knows Sigmund. Sorry, Doctor Freud. And the latter becomes one of his closest confidants in Robert Seethaler's novel 'The Tobacconist'. When social conditions change drastically and antisemitism becomes ever more widespread, life gets dangerous for Franz, and for .
– © Kein & Aber Verlag
Gallery
Robert Musil | 1930: You need plenty of time and patience to tackle this book – but it's worth it. Musil's 1700-page work was divided into three volumes and tells the story of the mathematician Ulrich, the 'Man Without Qualities'. He wants to take a year's 'leave from life' and so starts working as secretary for his cousin Diotima. The central topic for Musil is the dilemma of the modern person. Because his tries to find a deeper meaning of life in an increasingly fast-paced, demystified world. Something that's more relevant than ever.
– © rororo Verlag
Joseph Roth | 1938: The end of an era. Well, perhaps the end of a state – as described by Joseph Roth in his novel 'The Emperor's Tomb'. Lieutenant Franz Ferdinand Trotta wistfully bids farewell and retrospectively tells of his beloved Danube Monarchy, the long journey to the Republic and finally Austria's annexation to the Third Reich in 1938. 'The Emperor's Tomb' is Joseph Roth's last work published during his lifetime.
– © dtv Verlag
Stefan Zweig | 1942 (posthumous): It is a look back at a long-forgotten world, yet Stefan Zweig's 'The World of Yesterday' has lost none of its relevance. His last novel, which was published posthumously, is also his most famous. It tells of his lost life. In it, he sketches how everything he once held dear and precious is crumbling and being dismantled around him. Zweig's work is much more than a modern witness statement. It is an homage to time that once was and a warning for how it should never be again.
– © S. Fischer Verlag
Heimito von Doderer | 1951: 'The Strudelhof Steps' is not just a set of in Vienna's 9th district. It is also the name of a great Austrian novel and acts as the pivot for the story of the upper class Stangeler family. The book is a roundelay of secret loves and full of the kind of forbidden adultery that only a great leading lady can bring to life. And that is Vienna itself. And so we dream with Doderer about the majestic Vienna between 1911 and 1925.
– © dtv Verlag
Elfriede Jelinek | 1983: Erika Kohut is a piano teacher at the Vienna Conservatory. She is in her mid-thirties, still living with her domineering mother, and unable to get away from her. Since she was born, the mother has been controlling and drilling her daughter and becoming increasingly possessive of her. 'The Piano Teacher' is a powerfully worded novel with which Elfriede Jelinek caused a worldwide sensation. The book was also filmed in 2001 by the director Michael Haneke, with the French actress Isabelle Huppert starring as Erika.
– © rororo Verlag
Robert Seethaler | 2012: Franz loves Anezka. And Franz knows Sigmund. Sorry, Doctor Freud. And the latter becomes one of his closest confidants in Robert Seethaler's novel 'The Tobacconist'. When social conditions change drastically and antisemitism becomes ever more widespread, life gets dangerous for Franz, and for .
– © Kein & Aber Verlag
Top 6 books on Vienna by international writers
Graham Greene | 1950: The film classic in book format. As you open the book, you can almost hear Anton Karas playing his melody on the zither as you're transported back in time to post-war Vienna. 'The Third Man' is a game of hide-and-seek in the Vienna of 1948, in a city that is still suffering terribly from the damage wreaked by the war. The penicillin smuggler Harry Lime invites his friend, the writer Rollo Martins, to Vienna. But when Martins arrives, he learns that Harry has been killed in an automobile accident. Full of suspicion, he goes looking for the truth. It's at least just as good as its black and white counterpart.
– © dtv Verlag
John Irving | 1978: A book so varied, paradoxical, quirky, brutal, and yet so good that you simply can't get it out of your head. In it, Irving tells the story of Garp, who leaves America with his mother Jenny after finishing school and relocates to Vienna. Once there, Jenny writers her autobiography, which makes her instantly famous – she becomes a kind of figurehead for the women's movement. And Garp? – Garp's life and his worldview let us into an unexpected universe.
– © rororo Verlag
Elias Canetti | 1980: The Nobel Prize winner and world-famous writer Elias Canetti writes in his novel 'The Torch in My Ear' about his life from 1921 to 1931. In doing so, he constantly shifts the focal point of his life between Frankfurt, Vienna and Berlin. Canetti begins his studies in Vienna in the middle of the Golden Twenties. Here he will meet his future wife, Veza Canetti, who remained his greatest literary support and critic until her death. A book that is much more than just a modern witness report.
– © S. Fischer Verlag
Irvin D. Yalom | 2001: In Irvin D. Yalom's fictional novel 'When Nietzsche Wept', three famous real people meet each other. The young Russian Lou Andreas-Salomé asks the respected doctor Josef Breuer for his help. He should heal the suicidal Friedrich Nietzsche and cure him of his obsessions. A 'ménage-à-trois' that you won't want to put down.
– © btb Verlag
Edmund de Waal | 2010: It was one of perhaps the most influential families in Europe: the banking dynasty. Having always been excited by art, it began collecting early on. Its treasures included a collection of netsuke: small, skillfully crafted Javanese carvings in wood or ivory, with a wide range of forms and colors. They include a hare with amber eyes. Edmund de Waal, himself a descendant of the s, tells in his book about the rise and expulsion of his family and the search for his own roots.
– © Zsolnay Verlag
Tim Bonyhady | 2011: The Jewish Gallia family was a permanent feature on the Viennese art scene. Not as artists but as supporters. Because the Gallias were the patrons of the most important artists around the turn of the previous century: from to Josef Hoffmann and from Koloman Moser to Alma Mahler-Werfel, the crème de la crème of Viennese artists was represented in their collection. The grandson of the clan, Tim Bonyhady, recounts the family's story and its flight from Vienna to Australia.
– © Zsolnay Verlag
Gallery
Graham Greene | 1950: The film classic in book format. As you open the book, you can almost hear Anton Karas playing his melody on the zither as you're transported back in time to post-war Vienna. 'The Third Man' is a game of hide-and-seek in the Vienna of 1948, in a city that is still suffering terribly from the damage wreaked by the war. The penicillin smuggler Harry Lime invites his friend, the writer Rollo Martins, to Vienna. But when Martins arrives, he learns that Harry has been killed in an automobile accident. Full of suspicion, he goes looking for the truth. It's at least just as good as its black and white counterpart.
– © dtv Verlag
John Irving | 1978: A book so varied, paradoxical, quirky, brutal, and yet so good that you simply can't get it out of your head. In it, Irving tells the story of Garp, who leaves America with his mother Jenny after finishing school and relocates to Vienna. Once there, Jenny writers her autobiography, which makes her instantly famous – she becomes a kind of figurehead for the women's movement. And Garp? – Garp's life and his worldview let us into an unexpected universe.
– © rororo Verlag
Elias Canetti | 1980: The Nobel Prize winner and world-famous writer Elias Canetti writes in his novel 'The Torch in My Ear' about his life from 1921 to 1931. In doing so, he constantly shifts the focal point of his life between Frankfurt, Vienna and Berlin. Canetti begins his studies in Vienna in the middle of the Golden Twenties. Here he will meet his future wife, Veza Canetti, who remained his greatest literary support and critic until her death. A book that is much more than just a modern witness report.
– © S. Fischer Verlag
Irvin D. Yalom | 2001: In Irvin D. Yalom's fictional novel 'When Nietzsche Wept', three famous real people meet each other. The young Russian Lou Andreas-Salomé asks the respected doctor Josef Breuer for his help. He should heal the suicidal Friedrich Nietzsche and cure him of his obsessions. A 'ménage-à-trois' that you won't want to put down.
– © btb Verlag
Edmund de Waal | 2010: It was one of perhaps the most influential families in Europe: the banking dynasty. Having always been excited by art, it began collecting early on. Its treasures included a collection of netsuke: small, skillfully crafted Javanese carvings in wood or ivory, with a wide range of forms and colors. They include a hare with amber eyes. Edmund de Waal, himself a descendant of the s, tells in his book about the rise and expulsion of his family and the search for his own roots.
– © Zsolnay Verlag
Tim Bonyhady | 2011: The Jewish Gallia family was a permanent feature on the Viennese art scene. Not as artists but as supporters. Because the Gallias were the patrons of the most important artists around the turn of the previous century: from to Josef Hoffmann and from Koloman Moser to Alma Mahler-Werfel, the crème de la crème of Viennese artists was represented in their collection. The grandson of the clan, Tim Bonyhady, recounts the family's story and its flight from Vienna to Australia.
– © Zsolnay Verlag
A list of the books:
Austrian writers about Vienna:
Robert Musil | The Man Without Qualities | 1930 (rororo Verlag)
Joseph Roth | The Emperor's Tomb | 1938 (dtv Verlag)
Stefan Zweig | The World of Yesterday | 1942 (S. Fischer Verlag)
Heimito von Doderer | The Strudelhof Steps | 1951 (dtv Verlag)
Elfriede Jelinek | The Piano Teacher | 1983 (rororo Verlag)
Robert Seethaler | The Tobacconist | 2012 (Kein & Aber Verlag)
International writers about Vienna:
Graham Greene | The Third Man | 1950 (dtv Verlag)
John Irving | The World According to Garp | 1978 (rororo Verlag)
Elias Canetti | The Torch in My Ear | 1980 (S. Fischer Verlag)
Irvin D. Yalom | When Nietzsche Wept | 2001 (btb Verlag)
Edmund de Waal | The Hare with Amber Eyes | 2010 (Zsolnay Verlag)
Tim Bonyhady | Good Living Street | 2011 (Zsolnay Verlag)
