Old Masters

A Comedy

Thomas Bernhard author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd

Published:1st Oct '20

£9.99

Available for immediate dispatch.

Old Masters cover

'I hate walking, he says, it seems so pointless to me. I walk, and while I am walking I keep thinking how I hate walking'

'Bernhard is one of the masters of contemporary European fiction'George Steiner

Old Masters (1985) is Thomas Bernhard's devilishly funny story about the friendship between two old men.

For over thirty years Reger, a music critic, has sat on the same bench in front of a Tintoretto painting in a Viennese museum, thinking and railing against contemporary society, his fellow men, artists, the weather, even the state of public lavatories. His friend Atzbacher has been summoned to meet him, and through his eyes we learn more about Reger - the tragic death of his wife, his thoughts of suicide and, eventually, the true purpose of their appointment. At once pessimistic and exuberant, rancorous and hilarious, Old Masters is a richly satirical portrait of culture, genius, nationhood, class, the value of art and the pretensions of humanity.

ISBN: 9780241459423

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 15mm

Weight: 191g

256 pages