Product Description

The works of the great literary and cultural critic Walter Benjamin are a reservoir of texts, commentaries, scraps and fragments of everyday life, arts and dreams. This beautifully designed book gives an insight into Benjamin s habits of collecting and archiving through some of his most personal documents. From notebooks in which every conceivable space is covered with handwriting and a heartfelt traveller s series of postcards, to a sequence of Benjamin s own photographs, and lists that include a collection of his son Stefan s early words and sentences, this wonderful collection testifies to Benjamin s complex and kaleidoscopic passion for the archive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64361 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
"The most important German aesthetician and literary critic of the twentieth century." - George Steiner Praise for The Arcades Project: "A towering literary event." - New York Times "Benjamin is important because of his insight into the cultural consequences of capitalism, an insight that gives us a style of thinking about the now inescapable culture of consumerism," - Harper's "A magnificent opus." - J. M. Coetzee, Guardian"

About the Author
WALTER BENJAMIN was born in Germany in 1892 and died in Spain in 1940. His other books include Illuminations and, with Verso, One-Way Street and The Origin of German Tragic Drama.

Customer Reviews

flaneuring through walters notebooks
this peek into walter benjamin's note books is well worth a look, as well as a read. In addition to having the archives translated into English, the original german and photos/scans of the original note book are also included. This is important when considering the work of benjamin, as he often attached great importance to the way the words look upon the page, as well as the notebook itself. We come across some of the more familiar aspects of benjamin's writings, but also learn a lot about the person, his relationship with his son, Stephan, and his dablings into wordplay and puzzles. Unlike some of the other paperbacks on benjamin's work, this book provides great insight into his working methods and anarchic, yet highly ordered system of studying and researching.