Descripción
[Voss, Richard]. Amata. From the German of Richard Voss [translated] by Roger S. G. Boutell. Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1901. First edition in English. Octavo, pp. [1-5] 6-116 [note: fly leaf at front and rear]. Original navy blue cloth, front panel stamped in gold. Some rubbing to cloth at extremities and light fading here and there to gold stamping, but a very good, better-than-average copy of this book, which is scarce in trade. #3312. $325. The author packs an impressive amount of action and thematic substance into this supernatural novella, which explores a dense knot of conflicts ranging from the intimate to the civilizational. It is set mainly on the outskirts of Rome in the third quarter of the 19th century (during the papacy of Pius IX). But the heart of the story takes us back to Nero's 1st century Rome, with its violent conflicts of pagan and Christian cultures. The story feasts on the theme of obstruction and dilemma: language barriers, fever dreams, curses, ill-starred romances, romantic triangles, colliding religions, misunderstandings, ambiguities -- not to mention the apparent intersection of historical periods two millennia apart, as well as, possibly, the reincarnations of the same two souls. Murder, disease, confusion, isolation and a seemingly malevolent fate bear down on all the story's characters. The image of a sandstorm forms an apt background in one section. And an archaeological dig (revealed near the end of the story, with its imagery of truths buried under other layers) seems to confirm the reality of the tragic heroine Amata as a ghost rather than the hero's fever vision. The author helps us see, as in an archaeological cross-section, the cultural layers of the Campagna: the bright glory of classical antiquity, the dark glory of early Christianity, and the dull power of skeptical materialism. Just as the author's characterizations stay far away from stereotypes, his style is suggestive rather than dogmatic, enriched by a multitude of richly painted details. The novella explores deep metaphysical conflicts but the author never puts his thumb on the scales. Indeed, he almost veils the story's most numinous lights, allowing the reader only a glimpse of the nimbus that surrounds them. This novella is a significant work in the field and deserves to be unearthed from its present obscurity. Bleiler (1978), p. 201. Reginald 14744. The original German text is listed in Bloch, Bibliographie der Utopie und Phantastik, #3266, and was published as part of a collection of three weird tales in 1901. Krick, Neale Books, p, 190. Present in the Eaton collection at UC Riverside. Richard Voss (1851-1918) had eleven literary works translated into English, according to Morgan (9570-9581) including The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter, based loosely on a Voss text and translated by Bierce in collaboration with Adolph Danziger. N° de ref. del artículo 3312
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