Product Description
The first novel in the acclaimed History of Bestiality"""" trilogy. Living high in the Alps in a German principality, our narrator tells us he's dutifully fulfilling his obligations as a Servant of Justice and acting as a daily witness to injustice masquerading as a court of law. One day he notices that the judge is much too engrossed in looking at pornographic photographs showing various other pillars of the town engaged in a variety of sexual activities with minors. The incident propels him on a mental journey back through his life: black-humor fantasies and suicidal drinking binges; the Roman catacombs, warm summer nights in Brooklyn; brothels in Stockholm, his childhood in Norway, and wanderings in Germany.But aside from court records he has been keeping his own long and detailed account of man's cruelty to man in a massive twelve-volume study he calls his History of Bestiality. Acknowledging his Germanic past, the narrator realizes that all his attempts to perceive order in life lead only to his acceptance of the chaos of life. We see him striving to live uncoerced by power, unpersuaded by friends, to take for himself the liberty of stating his critique in order to live in his own moment of truth, to stand """"far out at the edge of the abyss.""""""""Harshly comic and richly disturbing fiction.""""Kirkus Reviews ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Flawed, but Horrifyingly Real
Jens Bjorneboe is the greatest failed novelist of the twentieth
century. His masterwork is considered the trilogy roughly called
"the History of Bestiality"--roughly, because the title actually
belongs to a twelve-volume project of his autobiographical
narrator, which is unfinished. The trilogy therefore does not
present such a history itself, but rather the experiences of
that profoundly disturbed character, along with his morbid
reflections, painful memories and alarming dreams, plus
recitations of horrible happenings drawn from his grisly
research. Not one of the novels is without structural flaws, but
each communicates a rage against cruelty and brutality with a
force that is rare in fictional literature.

MOMENT OF FREEDOM (1966) is the first of the three novels and is
virtually formless. It seems that the author cannot master his
material--the whole history of man's inhumanity to man--with a
calm analysis or fit it into a standard artistic structure, but
rather recoils in pain, retreats into dismal reflections,
indulges in sarcastic tirades, describes petty officials and
deranged villagers as monsters, relives the atrocities of the
Nazis and Communists, remembers himself wading through blood and
most of all intoxicates himself, all without any apparent order.
The effect is disorienting, but at the same time invigorating,
since it brings an electric awareness of being caught up in
something horrifyingly real. Here is someone violently
disturbed, speaking straight from the heart, grabbing you like
a bloodied, but eloquent victim of an attack. You can't expect
his urgent report to be neat and tidy.

You must simply follow the narrator-guide, the lowly "Servant of
Justice" of the mythical Swiss town of Heiligenberg, a man so
burdened by a mind-numbing past that he can't remember his own
name, as he records the filthy injustices of the court,
denounces the sanctimonious townsmen with his drinking buddies
at an inn called "Zum Henker" ("Go to Hell"), or wanders through
bleak memories and unidentifiable towns. Don't try to keep track
of the time, or where you are going, or whether the landscape is
real or hallucinatory. After the journey you can go back and
retrace your steps, read critical studies, then some things will
fall into place, but not all.

One pointer I will give is that the "moment of freedom" is not
an episode or a single event, but more like a category--an
opportunity for truth and contact with reality that is most
often missed. Bjorneboe relates it to the bullfighting "moment
of truth" before the sword goes through the bull's shoulder
blades. His thought is that freedom is not a relief or a
liberation from duty (there is a frightening scene of murderers
breaking out of prison), but rather an insight that brings
commitment and love for another. To deny it is to deny the
responsibility of being human, to commit a sin against the Holy
Ghost and therefore to negate "the meaning of the earth and of
the starry heavens: individuation--coming into being."

Bjorneboe believes that in the moment of truth one can take the
liberty of speaking:"An author can only fulfil his human and
social duty when he is completely and unreservedly honest. Only
when he tells the truth which only he can tell, even if it
deviates totally from the officially accepted one, only then is
he contributing anything of value at all."

This novel contributes something of value. If you are seeking
escape from celebrity books and potboilers, and wish to renew
contact with the spiritual source of real literature, start
here. The translation is perfect--so rich and flowing, you'd
think the novel were written in English. Bjorneboe told the
truth that only he could tell, and therefore is one of the
greats.

The history of bestiality
Somewhere in this book Bjorneboe wrote: "Within 10 years my knowledge of the world will be so big that it must lead to self-destruction." Exactly 10 years later, he committed suicide. A remarkable fact that showswhich atmosphere this novel breathes. It is a semi-autobiographical storyabout absolute freedom and absolute loneliness - two sides of one coin.About depression, about 20th century Europe and about the bestiality ofmankind. Despite its pitch-black vision on humanity, it is also a veryfunny book. A masterpiece in irony and cynism! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A good introduction to an important, overlooked author
Jens Bjorneboe, the Norwegian author who is the subject of Keeper of the Protocols, has unfortunately not yet crossed "the English barrier".There is a need, however, for the English-speaking world to be aware of his radical critiques of society and man's inhumanity to man. Martin's book chronicles Bjorneboe's entire writing career as well as introducing the biographical context of the works.Martin convincingly argues that Bjorneboe is not simply an intersting specimen of local color, but rather that "he was internationalist in almost every sense of the word.It might even be said that he was a writer without a language." Bjorneboe grew up under the spectre of Nazism, and one of the re-occuring themes in his works is the problem of evil.Even more important is one's personal response to that evil.One can face the evil and try to change things to a better way, or one can deny both the existence of the evil and the capacity for change.Bjorneboe's works often chronicle the latter response, and ironically force the reader into the position of the former. Even in Bjorneboe's depiction of cruelty there is at least some comic relief, and a sense of hope that comes from turning the spotlight of truth onto even the darkest corners of the human condition. Bjorneboe's entire oeuvre is being reprinted in Norway, where he continues to hold an almost cult-like status.The Sharks, his award-winning swan-song, is currently available in English, as are two of his plays. Keeper of the Protocols can serve as a welcome introduction and guide to Bjorneboe and his works for those not yet familiar with him.Not overly academic, it is accessible to the average educated reader and will open up an important new facet of world literature. ... Read more

Product Description
As with the first two books of this trilogy, The Silence also rejects the traditional modes of fiction to posit instead an essay-like novel of ideas, philosophy, and argumentation.Here the inquiring narrator explores not just European history, as he did in the first two novels, but the crimes committed by Europeans against the rest of humanity in the name of expansion and conquest. Set in northern Africa, the narrator is looking at Europe from the outside. With his friend Ali, an African revolutionary intellectual, he discusses in epic fashion the history of colonialism.He engages in imaginary conversations with Columbus, Robespierre, God, and Satan. He becomes totally immersed in what he perceives as the world's wickedness. Despite its presentation of horrors and man's inhumanity to man, and its grim portrayal of the narrator's long plunge into the tunnel of depression, The Silence does not depress. It praises man's immeasurable capacity for good.A riveting work of experimental fiction.""Library Journal ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Didactic, But Brilliant
THE SILENCE is the last of Bjorneboe's trilogy of novels called
"The History of Bestiality" and departs markedly from the
preceding two. The first, MOMENT OF FREEDOM (1966), focuses on
"Germania" as the outstanding source of mankind's brutality: the
two world wars, the concentration camps, the racism. Bolshevism
figures in it as just another face of fascism. The second novel,
POWDERHOUSE (1969), delves into more remote history as it offers
examples of the hero's research into the Inquisition, exposing
the pious instinct as an instrument of control and the crowd
mentality as a blood lust. In THE SILENCE (1973) the autobio-
graphical hero finds himself in northern Africa, conversing with
a character named Ali, who has much in common with Frantz Fanon.
From this remote station his eyes peer at Europe, the
colonializer and source of misery for the Third World. Germania
no longer stands out. As Ali instructs him, the perspective
inside Europe is wrong, for it holds up Hitler as a moral
monster, a boogeyman, an exception to the rule; whereas, seen
through the eyes of the colonialized, he is the rule--the
colonial powers were equally ruthless, killed more than the
Nazis and lasted longer than the Third Reich. Accordingly, the
author of The History of Bestiality now catalogs the crimes of
the first conquering Europeans, the Conquistadores: Cortez over
the Aztecs in Mexico and Pisarro over the Incas in Peru.
Incredible scenes of carnage roll across the pages with the same
remorseless attention to detail and biting sarcasm as before,
but with even greater urgency and rage than in the preceding
novels. However, the account has become one-sided:the
sacrifices of children by the pre-Columbian Indians and their
pleasure in wearing human pelts replete with face and scalp
until they rotted and fell away are minimized and excused by the
rapacious gold-lust of the detestable foreigners.

Thus Bjorneboe arrives at a position anticipating the leftist
platforms in America and Europe that dominated the last three
decades of the twentieth century: Political Correctness and
selective Multiculturalism. All history is reinterpreted to the
detriment of the First World and to the credit of the Third. All
filth and evil come from the former; all goodness and hope come
from the latter; and the speaker, who happens to belong to the
former, is absolved of his sins by promoting the latter. It is
a sham doctrine the same as Leninism, from which it derives--the
vanguard speaking for the proletariat. Yet unlike the high
priests of PC, Bjorneboe is not interested in changing
university curricula, dominating the scholarly press or
dictating hiring practices, meanwhile winning a cushy spot for
himself while stabbing non-conformist scholars in the back, but
rather he retains the old fire of the sixties and finally, at
long last, puts his faith in revolution. The subject peoples of
the world, he asserts, the insulted and the injured, the
wretched and the ragged, the downtrodden and the disadvantaged,
will one day rise up to claim their freedom, their rightful
portion of the Earth's bounty and their sunny place in history.
The present moment is but the still--Stillheten, The Silence--
before the storm.

Given this ideology, the didactic tone and the absence of form
(the novel is mostly a series of conversations) THE SILENCE
should not work. And yet it is brilliant and highly readable,
thanks in part to Murer's excellent translation and in part to
the author's sheer inventiveness. The hero meets a penitent
Christopher Columbus in the street, converses with Robespierre
and debates with God, who looks like a shabby street vendor,
only "without a cart." These scenes are absolutely brilliant,
and the trilogy itself, despite its flaws, voices a passion that
is exceptional in world literature and a spiritual peak for
mankind.

Bjorneboe did not find a solution to the problem of evil. How
could he?But after reading him, one cannot fail to be a lot
more distrustful of authority, a lot more skeptical of do-
gooders and a lot more critical of everything. Which is good.

The crecendo and the silence
Hope and destruction are intertwined, evil is contemplated, yet not stated, historical facts are the basis of philosophical uncertanty and diffuse political firmness. This low-pitched novel has the strength of coping with brutality with both irony and fearful seriousness. Time is not a straight line, but a melting pot of friendship, arrogance, torture and thought. The crecendo of time and history leaves room for a profound silence, fluently and mastefully communicated by one of the great authors of our time. ... Read more

Product Description
'Drummer of Juliet' SCARCE Near Fine Red Cloth Binding and text. No DJ. Gilt spine decorations with Black Title and Author Box. Norwegian text (as in book) Minor board cocking. Red Cloth Binding with embossed printing front and verso.221pp. 5" X 9 1/4". Fiction. D-9109 ... Read more

Product Description
The second novel in Bjorneboe's History of Bestiality"" trilogy. The story is told by Jean, a janitor in a mental hospital in southern France. Jean keeps protocols, keeps for himself a written record of those events occurring around him. Also in the hospital are a strange cast of characters, any of whom could have committed the executtion-like hanging of an ex-German SS member around which the plot, which is akin to a mystery or espionage potboiler, revolves. It's hospital policy that everyone can give a lecture and a large portion of the book is taken up with three lectures: the narrator talks about witch symptomatology; Lacroix, a Belgian executioner, offers up a powerful, Foucault-like piece on the history of execution, executioners, and capital punishment; and the acid-dropping Dr. Lefévre discusses heresy and heretics. ""Exudes the intermittently charming hippie disaffection of the '60s.""Publishers Weekly ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Horrifying and Delightful
POWDERHOUSE is the second installment of Bjorneboe's trilogy, generally known as "The History of Bestiality." The narrator is a "renovation worker"--i.e., "sanitation engineer"--at an asylum for the criminally insane in the south of France. The institution occupies the buildings of La Poudriere, a former munitions depot with a stone tower (the powderhouse), which is surrounded by a large park; the renovation worker occupies one of the outlying peasant cottages and has a delightful little sunlit garden. Here he rests from his daily chores, eating simple but satisfying meals, drinking a variety of wines, entertaining guests, sometimes smoking hashish, sometimes taking a hit of LSD, sometimes enjoying the embraces of a little brown nurse and every night feeding a friendly hedgehog. His chief occupation after cleaning the grounds is writing The History of Bestiality, and his discussions with visitors deal either with this theme or with the doings of madmen. Nevertheless, the halcyon air of the garden lends a pastoral atmosphere to the proceedings, an idyllic enchantment to recitations of the most zealous campaigns of carnage in history. Thus paradise, realized here and now, is contrasted with the hell that has become the wide earth, and the reading is oddly both horrifying and delightful at the same time.

Bjorneboe gives more attention to form in this novel. He draws a series of colorful characters with independent roles, creates a bit of a murder mystery and devises a mechanism for the insertion of factual horrors: Dr. Lefevre, the chief of staff, believes that it is good therapy for residents of the Powderhouse to deliver and hear lectures on themes that disturb them. Thus three long lectures are laid out in chronological order and provide a solid structure to the six-chapter novel, leaving no gaps, expanses of uncertain time or cessation of forward movement as in MOMENT OF FREEDOM.

The centerpiece is the second lecture, delivered by an inmate named Lacroix. It has no title, but might be called "Sympathy for the Executioner." Speaking from experience, Lacroix reminds his audience that executioners carry out the will of society; they are hired for their "special qualifications," paid with taxpayer money and approved for their performance. They execute criminals legally condemned to death by a court, yet they are shunned and despised by society. He then bemoans the difficulty of killing people neatly, especially when they turn to the executioner and ask for a speedy dispatch. Each method of execution designed to be merciful, such as long-drop hangings, beheadings and firing squads, proves to be unreliable, so that the executed may struggle to live for a long time. For the executioner these experiences are ultimately debilitating; the profession brings physical and mental illnesses and often leads to suicide. Although approved by society, the executioner bears the blood of the human race and stands guilty before humanity and before God; but who, Lacroix cries out in despair, who thinks of him?

The speech is nothing less than a masterpiece of world literature, as piercing in its humor as Voltaire's CANDIDE (1759) and as consistent in its wrong logic as Desiderius Erasmus' IN PRAISE OF FOLLY (1511). It takes the reader into an extreme reach of black humor which passes beyond definition--something way over the top, revoltingly gruesome and wildly hilarious and close to the quick at the same time. After this, the novel tends to get preachy, yet it deserves to be read for its entrancing mood and its flashes of bitter genius. Once again, the work is beautifully translated by Esther Greenleaf Murer.

Painful but good
I read this book in my early teens, and it made an enormous impression on me. This is the first book in the trilogy "History of bestiality" I read, I have also read the last two. This is painful book to read! Manytimes I wanted to throw away the book, and forget that all this pain,madness and evil existed, but I couldn't. In many ways I think it changedthe way I saw the world. This is book is meant for a more grown up publicthan I was when I first read it. ... Read more

Product Description
The Norwegian iconoclast Jens Bjørneboe described this work as "a wild, almost surrealistic play - partly sinister, partly comic... directed against those forms of society that do not allow room for people who think differently from those in power." In the horrible world of Amputation the dissident individual who cannot be normalized by conditioned reflexes may yet serve society - in the medical sense.

Bjørneboe wrote two versions of the play. Here, in one volume, are both, plus supplemental texts that provide all the materials for an extraordinary reading and, for the avant-garde theatrical group, an extraordinary production of Bjørneboe's shocking and prophetic warning. First publication in English. ... Read more

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Set at the end of the 19th century, this novel is a tale of mutiny and shipwreck. The narrator, Peder Jensen, is both competent second mate and unworldly philosopher. Esther Greenleaf Muerer has previously translated other works by Jens Bjorneboe, including "Moment of Freedom". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

SHARKS OF TWO KINDS
THE SHARKS concludes Bjorneboe's great series of novels, an achievement that someday perhaps will be ranked with the work of Kafka, Camus and Bellow, to mention but three distinctive novelists of the twentieth century who come to mind. Following the trilogy known as THE HISTORY OF BESTIALITY, all three novels of which are narrated by a man weighed down with the misery of the world, obsessed with human cruelty and injustice, and psychologically deformed by rage, hatred and alcoholism, the narrator-protagonist of THE SHARKS will come as a surprise. He is clear-headed, steady-handed and to a certain extent at peace with the world. One senses that the author cleaned himself up, went on the wagon and took on a project intended to prove that he could write a conventional novel accessible to any literate and sensitive soul. The result is a sea-story that deserves in every respect to stand alongside Melville and Conrad, and were it not for their precedence would be the best one of all.

Which is not to say that the hero, Peder Jensen, second mate and ship's doctor by default, is a well-adjusted socialite. Rather, he has "Neptune of the blood" and is driven away from society out to sea, though he dreads its roar and consuming depths. Yet when he stands at the helm of the ship he adores and calls Sancta Venere, steering it through the night, he reflects on humankind with a measure of hope. He sees it poised like himself on a point between the infinite universe of stars above and the immeasurable depths of the ocean below, yet imbued with a life-spirit, a world-soul, that pervades and encompasses everything. As it happens, the ship, which has set sail in October 1899, is doomed, and the century toward it and its crew are headed is the very same that inspired the author of the previous novels with recoiling horror. That he maintains such mastery of himself and his subject in this novel demonstrates great nobility of will and spirit.

The crew is filled with desperados, cutthroats and every kind of ethnic rabble, plus a capitalist slavedriver for capitan and a religious fanatic for first mate; the action is violent, explosive and unpredictable; there is also a tender story of a lost boy reminiscent of Mikhail Sholokhov's "The Fate of a Man." The sharks of the title are present not to eat everyone but rather to be eaten: when cut and bleeding in the water they are attacked by their kin, yet in the frenzy of feeding and thrashing turn to chomp on their own innards streaming from their guts. These bloodied sharks are hurled in the water after the men have sliced off their fins for soups and gauged out their livers for medicines. So the more hopeful Bjrneboe has not lost his critical eye. His last novel is escapist literature of a high order, providing much food for thought and a tour de force of artistic prose in Murer's unfailingly vigorous translation.

from its birth shark is driven by a unique instinct.. Hunger
I could never write a review about a jens bjernebö book.... He left to the world his masterpieces to read and comprehend and love.A hypersensitive book about brutality. A hymn to human heart.

It goes deeper.
The first time I read this book was for my own pleasure, and I thought the story was an exciting adventure. The second time I read it was in school when we analyzed it. Then I suddenly saw the allegories this book is packedwith. Now this book is one of my favorites and I have read it severaltimes.

A rousing sea adventure with a social conscience
A sea adventure worthy of comparison to Conrad and Melville, The Sharks tells the tale of "the last, meaningless, incomprehensible voyage" of the bark Neptune.The novel is set in the year 1899; the issues of diversity, violence, oppression, love, and interdependence presented are familiar concerns for contemporary readers at the end of this century. The narraator is Neptune's second mate Peder Jensen, a sailor who is afraid of the sea and yet can not leave it: "This is my fate and my curse: to love what I hate."The polarity, and ultimate union, of opposites is a theme which runs throughout this allegorical book.A white European, Jensen is in a privileged position as officer aboard a British ship.He gains our sympathy by being aware of his privilege and resisting the role of oppressor.He feels a revulsion toward his sometimes cruel and greedy fellow-officers and is supportive of the crew, "that strange assemblage of folk from every corner and edge of the globe, of every colour and race, denizens of the whole world's docks and ports." As the crew moves toward mutiny, Jensen is caught in the middle of the power struggle betweeen groups. Throughout the book, Bjorneboe acknowledges the inextricable connections between people and the mixture of good and bad in all of us. Jensen learns that he can not truly be as independent as he imagines himself, free of all ties: "One's every act toward another -- help included -- brings obligations and creates fate.One is caught in the net."Love and hate are two sides of the same coin; Jensen reflects that "of course destruction dwells in us all.In each there lives a murderer.But there also dwells a saviour and rescuer in us."The surprising and uplifting ending of the book brings out the best in each of the characters, and leaves the reader with a sense of hope for the uncertain future.Sensitively rendered into English by translator Esther Greenleaf Murer, this book represents a significant contribution to world literature, as well as being "a good read." ... Read more

Product Description
Drama. Translated from the Norwegian and with an introduction by Joe Martin. Novelist and essayist Jens Bjrneboe turned to playwriting during the 1960's, as a genre in which he might "stage his literary assault on hierarchical society with an aggressive, extroverted form of theater." (from the Introduction) This play had its world premier in Oslo in 1969, and recounts the tragic history of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, the founder of modern antiseptic techniques, whose biography illustrates "the pitfalls and even horrors of the man or woman of science who is naively in search of truth and improvement in the human condition, in a society that reveres prestige and power and its own received belief systems to the exclusion of any new 'truths." (from the Introduction) Brechtian in style and somewhat anarchic in its politics, SEMMELWEIS provides a biting critique of obtuse authority. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

THE HERETIC AND THE GUARDIAN TYPE
Jens Bjorneboe, like the Russian dissident Yevgeny Zamyatin, believed in heresy. The autobiographical alcoholic hero of his novel MOMENT OF FREEDOM (1966) remarks:"What on earth would our beloved, stinking, beautiful Europe have become without our dope fiends, drunkards, homosexuals, consumptives, madmen, syphilitics, bed-wetters, criminals and epileptics? Our whole culture was created by invalids, lunatics and felons. There isn't one normal person who has done a useful or lasting thing:it was the normal ones who built the slave labor camps in both Germany and Russia." This wild thought echoes Zamyatin's famous literary declaration of 1921: "The point is that there can be a true literature only where it is made not by efficient and trustworthy clerks, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels, skeptics." Both writers identified with the loner, the original thinker, the individual with the courage to question routine, dogma and well-established rules. Such an individual may challenge society, but also prove its salvation. Zamyatin characterized him as "a sailor sent up the mast, from which he can see shipwrecks, icebergs and maelstroms still undetectable from the deck."

As a Norwegian, Bjorneboe did not make his protest against a totalitarian government or even totalitarianism in general, but rather against the common urge to think alike, the herd mentality, the mass mind. His demon was what he called "the guardian type" (the term formynder-mennesket" entered everyday speech in Norway). This is the moral, political or social administrator, functionary or busybody who needs the system, the institution and the boss above him, who faithfully enforces the rules on people below him and ferociously punishes transgressors, mavericks and misfits. It's the little man who can be a big bully, a soul-killer or even, given the right circumstances, a body-killer, whether in an office, a university, or a scientific institution. In Russia they called such men "little Stalins." In America such men (and women) ticket your car, make sure you mow your lawn regularly and--but you know the type.

In the historical figure of Ignaz Semmelweis, nineteenth-century founder of antiseptic medicine, Bjorneboe found the perfect foil for his argument. Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician in Vienna, questioned the medically established definition of "child-bed fever" (a supposedly "non-contagious female disease common to the lower classes") and discovered the true source of the malady--infection from the dirty hands of the high-class physicians. From the moment of that discovery in 1846 to the end of his life in 1867 he was at war with the authorities, the recognized experts, the upholders of convention, who refused to accept his scientific data, to follow his hygienic methods, which eliminated the "fever" in his ward, or even to try washing their hands with the proper disinfectant, and therefore condemned 25% of pregnant women in Europe--hundreds of thousands--to death. The heretic-savior is denounced, fired and driven half-mad, while the respectable guardians of medicine murder their patients. Later Louis Pasteur confirmed Semmelweis' discovery, and procedures were finally changed.

Given this theme, the play SEMMELWEIS (1968) is unusually forceful, like all of Bjorneboe's works, though in the manner of a Greek tragedy the opposition to the hero is mostly offstage. Joe Martin's translation is crisp and efficient, but has irritating lapses of punctuation ("I know, I know Herr Doktor." "Then you should know something about women, shouldn't you Nasi?")Bjorneboe framed the period piece with a prologue and epilogue: contemporary students seize the stage (prologue), present an unscheduled play (the play about Semmelweis) and afterwards encourage the audience to discuss it (epilogue). Since the frame can change with the times, the historical material can be renewed in each country and period, and with it the basic argument. But here the translation drops the prologue, preferring to explain it at length in an introduction, which is strange. Otherwise it's a good job, and the Sun and Moon printing is beautiful. Martin is also the author of an important study of Bjorneboe, KEEPER OF THE PROTOCOLS (1996). The play should be made into a movie.

A Challenging Emotional Drama Not to Be Missed!
This chilling tale is classic Bjørneboe material. Based on the true story of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, the play shows the intelligent well-meaning individual pitted against the ignorant and inhumane forces of the facelessinstitution and small-minded peers. Semmelweis, an Austro-Hungarianphysician, is today lauded as the father of modern antiseptic theory.During his lifetime, however, he was ridiculed, maligned, fired from hisposition, and driven to madness. The first to make the connection betweenthe plague of childbed fever, which killed countless women, and medicalstudents' trips between the morgue and the maternity hospital, Semmelweisfound himself to be a voice crying in the wilderness. Doctors and medicalstudents did not want to believe that they themselves could be the carriersof disease. They therefore branded Semmelweis a heretic and created amartyr to truth. In his preface to the work, Martin states: "As oftenis the case in Bjørneboe's work, disease is also a metaphor for theprevailing consciousness of an age. The 'doctors are the disease' here --and so is the hierarchical form of society upon which they sit near the toprungs. Meanwhile anyone who pursues an inconvenient truth in such a societyis paradoxically seen as 'sick.' That is, he is not normal because he isnot part of the prevailing disease."

Class and gender politics areevident, as doctors seem unmoved by the deaths of the poor women who cometo the lying-in hospitals. The disinfectants found in the janitor's closetare deemed inappropriate tools for the gentleman professional. Our tragichero Semmelweis and the unfortunate patients are undone by the physicians'refusal to simply wash their hands - or even to engage in the scientificexperiment of determining if such an act could make a difference inhospital mortality rates.

Martin's lively translation conveys theexcitement and despair of this story of misunderstood genius. Bjørneboehimself deserves high praise for bringing this tale to life for modernreaders, and for casting more light on our own human condition. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Censorship in Norway, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Jens Bjørneboe, Odd F. Lindberg, Christian Krohg, Norwegian Media Authority, Hans Jæger, the Song of the Red Ruby. Excerpt: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian: ), is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles. The screenplay was written by Age ... Read more

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Chapters: Josef Terboven, Jens Bjørneboe, Leif Grung, Radka Toneff, Enevold de Falsen, Tycho Kielland, Emanuel Mohn, Vebjørn Tandberg, Tore Tønne, Svein Erik Bakke. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 33. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Jens Ingvald Bjørneboe (October 9, 1920 in Kristiansand, Norway May 9, 1976 in Veierland in Nøtterøy) was a Norwegian writer whose work spanned a number of literary formats. He was also a painter and a waldorf school teacher. Bjørneboe was a harsh and eloquent critic of Norwegian society and Western civilization on the whole. He led a turbulent life and his uncompromising opinions would cost him both an obscenity conviction as well as long periods of heavy drinking and bouts of depression, which in the end led to his suicide. Jens Bjørneboe's first published work was Poems (Dikt) in 1951. He is widely considered to be one of Norway's most important post-war authors. Bjørneboe identified himself, among other self-definitions, as an anarcho-nihilist. During the Norwegian language struggle, Bjørneboe was a notable proponent of the Riksmål language, together with his equally famous cousin André Bjerke. Jens Bjørneboe was born in 1920, in Kristiansand to Ingvald and Anna Marie Bjørneboe. He grew up in a wealthy family, his father a shipping magnate and a consul for Belgium. The Bjørneboe family originally immigrated from Germany in the 17th century and later adopted a Norwegian name. Coming from a long line of marine officers, Bjørneboe also went to sea as a young man. Bjørneboe had a troubled childhood with sickness and depressions. He was bedbound for several years following severe pneumonia. Already at thirteen he attempted suicide by hanging himself. He began drinking when he was twelve, and he would often consume large amounts of wine when his parents...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=542705 ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Censorship in Norway, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Jens Bjørneboe, Odd F. Lindberg, Christian Krohg, H7, Norwegian Media Authority, Hans Jæger, the Song of the Red Ruby. Excerpt: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian: ), is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles. The screenplay was written by Age ... Read more

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Chapters: Sigrid Undset, Knut Hamsun, Ola Bauer, Ole Edvart Rølvaag, Jens Bjørneboe, Ragnar Ulstein, Ebba Haslund, Jon Bing, Christian A. R. Christensen, Johan Harstad, Jostein Gaarder, Kjartan Fløgstad, Alexander Kielland, Jonas Lie, Willy Ustad, Gabriel Scott, Lars Saabye Christensen, Torolf Elster, Arild Stavrum, Ragnhild Jølsen, Edvard Welle-Strand, Anthon B. Nilsen, Waldemar Christofer Brøgger, Nils Nilsen Ronning, John Schjelderup Giæver, Olav Duun, Hans Heiberg, Paal Brekke, Roy Jacobsen, Dorthea Dahl, Sigurd Segelcke Meidell, Sigurd Evensmo, Niels Christian Brøgger, Bjørn Kjos, Per Petterson, Hans Wiers-Jenssen, Aksel Sandemose, Gert Nygårdshaug, Sigbjørn Hølmebakk, Anne Karin Elstad, Johan Koren Christie, Johan Bojer, Karin Bang, Andreas Norland, Henrik Langeland, Toril Brekke, Erlend Loe, Jan Jakob Tønseth, Gerd Grønvold Saue, Øvre Richter Frich, Olav Angell, Paal-Helge Haugen, Sverre Årnes, Gunnar Larsen, Kristian Kristiansen, Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Morten Harry Olsen, Ronald Fangen, Kjell Askildsen, Carl Fredrik Engelstad, Solveig Christov, Terje Stigen, Gerd Brantenberg, Tor Edvin Dahl, Egil Rasmussen, Kim Småge, Jens Zetlitz Kielland, Laila Stien, Odd Kvaal Pedersen, Bergljot Hobæk Haff, Carl Frode Tiller, Kurt Aust, Albert Henrik Mohn, Anker Rogstad, Merethe Lindstrøm, Vigdis Hjorth, Marie Takvam, Dagfinn Grønoset, Irene Ibsen Bille, Trude Brænne Larssen, Eric Scobie, Vetle Vislie, Liv Køltzow, Olav Njølstad, Mah-Rukh Ali, Cecilie Løveid, Edvard Hoem, Leif B. Lillegaard, Alex Brinchmann, Øyvind Myhre, Carlos Wiggen, Nini Roll Anker, Jon Hellesnes, Arthur Omre, Levi Henriksen, Nikolaj Frobenius, Clara Thue Ebbell, Jon Michelet, Eystein Eggen, Bjørn Nilsen, Finn Carling, Oskar Braaten, Magnhild Haalke, Tove Nilsen, Johannes Heggland, Olav Gullvåg, Merete Morken Andersen, Jan Inge Sørbø, Simen Skjønsberg, Erlend Erichsen, Alvilde Prydz, Kåre Prytz, Per Knutsen, Fartein Døvle Jonassen, Didrik Hegermann Grønvold, Jane M...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=29236 ... Read more

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Chapters: Norwegian Anarchists, Jens Bjørneboe, Ivar Mortensson-Egnund, Bergljot Hobæk Haff, Tor Åge Bringsværd, Hans Jæger, Leonard Borgzinner. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Jens Ingvald Bjørneboe (October 9, 1920 in Kristiansand, Norway May 9, 1976 in Veierland in Nøtterøy) was a Norwegian writer whose work spanned a number of literary formats. He was also a painter and a waldorf school teacher. Bjørneboe was a harsh and eloquent critic of Norwegian society and Western civilization on the whole. He led a turbulent life and his uncompromising opinions would cost him both an obscenity conviction as well as long periods of heavy drinking and bouts of depression, which in the end led to his suicide. Jens Bjørneboe's first published work was Poems (Dikt) in 1951. He is widely considered to be one of Norway's most important post-war authors. Bjørneboe identified himself, among other self-definitions, as an anarcho-nihilist. During the Norwegian language struggle, Bjørneboe was a notable proponent of the Riksmål language, together with his equally famous cousin André Bjerke. Jens Bjørneboe was born in 1920, in Kristiansand to Ingvald and Anna Marie Bjørneboe. He grew up in a wealthy family, his father a shipping magnate and a consul for Belgium. The Bjørneboe family originally immigrated from Germany in the 17th century and later adopted a Norwegian name. Coming from a long line of marine officers, Bjørneboe also went to sea as a young man. Bjørneboe had a troubled childhood with sickness and depressions. He was bedbound for several years following severe pneumonia. Already at thirteen he attempted suicide by hanging himself. He began drinking when he was twelve, and he would often consume large amounts of wine when his parents were away. It is al...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=542705 ... Read more

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Chapters: Jan Kjærstad, Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, Jens Bjørneboe, Rolf Jacobsen, Kjartan Fløgstad, Hans Børli, Lars Saabye Christensen, Kåre Holt, Dag Solstad, Alfred Hauge, Sigurd Evensmo, Per Petterson, Sigbjørn Hølmebakk, Philip Newth, Hans Herbjørnsrud, Mette Newth, Tor Jonsson, Paal-Helge Haugen, Herbjørg Wassmo, Torborg Nedreaas, Kjell Askildsen, Egil Rasmussen, Laila Stien, Odd Kvaal Pedersen, Tor Åge Bringsværd, Carl Frode Tiller, Tormod Haugen, Torgeir Schjerven, Lars Amund Vaage, Karl Ove Knausgård, Øyvind Rimbereid, Rolf Sagen, Trude Marstein, Emil Boyson, Thure Erik Lund, Johan Borgen, Ragnvald Skrede, Merete Morken Andersen, Øystein Lønn, Per Knutsen, Astrid Hjertenæs Andersen, Johan Fredrik Grøgaard, Tor Fretheim, Hilde Hagerup, Erna Osland, Rønnaug Kleiva. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 123. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature (Den norske Kritikerprisen for litteratur or Kritikerprisen) is awarded by the Norwegian Literature Critics' Association (Norsk Litteraturkritikerlag) and has been awarded every year since 1950. The prize is presented to a Norwegian author for a literary work as agreed to among the members of the Norwegian Literature Critics' Association. Since 1987 the Norwegian Literature Critics' Association has also awarded a prize for the best work of children's literature. The prize for literature critic of the year was established in 1994. It is granted to a critic who has demonstrated excellence through review of literature or who has strengthened the discipline of criticism. The objective is to highlight critic's work and stimulate academic study in all forms of criticism. ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=5175895 ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Norwegian Anarchists, Norwegian Socialists, Jens Bjørneboe, Ivar Mortensson-Egnund, Marcus Thrane, Jon Hippe, Aksel Zachariassen, Kristian Gleditsch, Gatas Parlament, Klaus Sunnanå, Andreas Thorud, Bergljot Hobæk Haff, Tor Åge Bringsværd, Hans Jæger, Leonard Borgzinner, Hans Raastad. Excerpt: Jens Ingvald Bjørneboe (October 9, 1920 in Kristiansand, Norway May 9, 1976 in Veierland in Nøtterøy) was a Norwegian writer whose work spanned a number of literary formats. He was also a painter and a waldorf school teacher. Bjørneboe was a harsh and eloquent critic of Norwegian society and Western civilization on the whole. He led a turbulent life and his uncompromising opinions would cost him both an obscenity conviction as well as long periods of heavy drinking and bouts of depression, which in the end led to his suicide. Jens Bjørneboe's first published work was Poems (Dikt) in 1951. He is widely considered to be one of Norway's most important post-war authors. Bjørneboe identified himself, among other self-definitions, as an anarcho-nihilist. During the Norwegian language struggle, Bjørneboe was a notable proponent of the Riksmål language, together with his equally famous cousin André Bjerke. Jens Bjørneboe was born in 1920, in Kristiansand to Ingvald and Anna Marie Bjørneboe. He grew up in a wealthy family, his father a shipping magnate and a consul for Belgium. The Bjørneboe family originally immigrated from Germany in the 17th century and later adopted a Norwegian name. Coming from a long line of marine officers, Bjørneboe also went to sea as a young man. Bjørneboe had a troubled childhood with sickness and depressions. He was bedbound for several years following severe pneumonia. Already at thirteen he attempted suicide by hanging himself. He ... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=542705 ... Read more

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Chapters: Henrik Ibsen, Ludvig Holberg, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Ola Bauer, Jens Bjørneboe, Ivar Mortensson-Egnund, Nordahl Grieg, Ebba Haslund, Gunnar Heiberg, Shabana Rehman, Johan Harstad, Hulda Garborg, Alexander Kielland, Jon Fosse, Helge Krog, Gabriel Scott, Hans Heiberg, Sigurd Evensmo, Torvald Tu, Hans Wiers-Jenssen, Henrik Anker Bjerregaard, Terje Formoe, Nils Kjær, Erlend Loe, Johan Herman Wessel, Kristian Kristiansen, Ronald Fangen, Carl Fredrik Engelstad, Solveig Christov, Tor Edvin Dahl, Tor Åge Bringsværd, Øyvind Berg, Inger Hagerup, Marie Takvam, Irene Ibsen Bille, Vetle Vislie, Robert Stoltenberg, Cecilie Løveid, Finn Iunker, Mathilde Schjøtt, Odd Børretzen, Nini Roll Anker, Henrik Rytter, Finn Carling, Oskar Braaten, Aslaug Vaa, Johannes Heggland, Olav Gullvåg, Per Knutsen, Alf Harbitz, Bjarne Slapgard, Stein Mehren, Ernst Orvil, Torild Wardenær, Sigurd Christiansen, Rolf Olsen, Bjørg Vik. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 184. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Henrik Ibsen (Norwegian pronunciation: ; 20 March 1828 23 May 1906) was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the godfather" of modern drama and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre. His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian values of family life and propriety largely held sway in Europe. Ibsen's work examined the realities that lay behind many facades, revealing much that was disquieting to many contemporaries. It utilized a critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality. Ibsen is often ranked as one of the truly great playwrights in the European tradition, alongside Shakespeare. Ibsen was born to Knud Ibsen and Marichen Altenburg, a relatively well-to-do merchant family, in ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=14236 ... Read more

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Chapters: Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway, Andreas Thorkildsen, Annie, Henrik Wergeland, Bernt Balchen, Jens Bjørneboe, Kristine Lunde-Borgersen, Christian Rynning-Tønnesen, Kristofer Hæstad, Joseph Frantz Oscar Wergeland, Christian Stray, Lars Nedland, Elise Wærenskjold, Katrine Lunde Haraldsen, Eiliv Skard, Julius Hougen, Peter Laurentius Larsen, Ann-Kristin Olsen, Camilla Collett, Ernst Fredrik Eckhoff, Espen Johnsen, Herman Amberg Preus, Valdemar Knudsen, Lene Mykjåland, Bjarne Aagaard Strøm, Tchort, Terje Baalsrud, Sven O. Høiby, Mads Stokkelien, Theo Sørensen, John G. Bernander, Bård Borgersen, William Martin Nygaard, Fredrik Strømstad, Sigmund Skard, Siri Tollerød, Ida Marcussen, Ronny Thorsen, Svein Mathisen, Marius Johnsen, Steinar Pedersen, Bjarne Skard, Peter Christian Petersen, Konrad Sundlo, Johnny Bovang, Betty Ann Bjerkreim Nilsen, Jens Haugland, Jesper Mathisen, Rolf Løvland, Kåre Valebrokk, Sissel Lie, Sigurd Køhn, Holger Hott, Bjarte Breiteig, Olav Brunvand, Kenneth Udjus, Christian Sørenssen, Ernst Oddvar Baasland, Nila Håkedal, Lene Elise Bergum, Agnes Kittelsen, Kirsten Sødal, Bjørn Egge, Steffen Hagen, Aram Khalili, Vidar Leif Haanes, Dagrun Eriksen, Roy Helge Olsen, Rolf Daniel Vikstøl, Gisle Johnson, Søren Abildgaard, Tor Atle Andersen, Per Brunvand, Anton Jörgen Andersen, Peter Skovholt Gitmark, Hege Sørvig, Helge Røstad, Steinar Tjomsland, Hans Christian Petersen, Morten Hæstad, Gunnar Grendstad, Aud Blattmann. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 237. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Andreas Thorkildsen (born 1 April 1982) is a Norwegian javelin thrower, born in Kristiansand. He is the first male javelin thrower in history to be both European champion, World champion and Olympic champion. He was Olympic champion in 2004 and 2008, European champion in 20...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=977412 ... Read more

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Chapters: Henrik Wergeland, André Bjerke, Jens Bjørneboe, Olvir Hnufa, Ivar Mortensson-Egnund, Nordahl Grieg, Gunnar Heiberg, Gunvor Hofmo, Rolf Jacobsen, Cornelius Jakhelln, Jonas Lie, Gunnar Reiss-Andersen, Hans Børli, Gabriel Scott, Harald Sverdrup, Jonas Rein, Triztán Vindtorn, Olaf Bull, Olav Nygard, Frederik Schmidt, Sigurd Bødtker, Finn Øglænd, Paal Brekke, Olav H. Hauge, Herman Wildenvey, Kolbein Falkeid, Torvald Tu, Jakob Sande, Henrik Anker Bjerregaard, Johan Koren Christie, Karin Bang, Arnulf Øverland, Edvard Storm, Ivar Orgland, Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, Jan Oskar Hansen, Carl Johan Frederik Jakhelln, Kjell Heggelund, Olav Angell, Johan Herman Wessel, Paal-Helge Haugen, Gunnar Larsen, Arnold Eidslott, Dorothe Engelbretsdotter, Sigmund Skard, Britt Karin Larsen, Ove Gjerløw Meyer, Laila Stien, Jens Zetlitz, Guthormr Sindri, Gro Dahle, Theodor Kjerulf, Albert Henrik Mohn, Øyvind Berg, Inger Elisabeth Hansen, Andreas Bonnevie, Inger Hagerup, Andreas Leigh Aabel, Marie Takvam, Magnus Brostrup Landstad, Arnljot Eggen, Peter R. Holm, Øyvind Rimbereid, Cecilie Løveid, Edvard Hoem, Terje Dragseth, Siri Broch Johansen, Rudolf Nilsen, Nils Collett Vogt, Andreas Jynge, Christian Tullin, Henrik Rytter, Eyvindr Skáldaspillir, Claes Gill, Þorbjörn Hornklofi, Tor Ulven, Finn Carling, Jón Sveinbjørn Jónsson, Aslaug Vaa, Olav Gullvåg, Jan Inge Sørbø, Simen Skjønsberg, Odd Abrahamsen, Astrid Hjertenæs Andersen, Gunnhild Øyehaug, Erling Christie, Bjarne Slapgard, Tom Lotherington, Tor Obrestad, Øystein Hauge, Arild Nyquist, Stein Mehren, Ernst Orvil, Marit Kaldhol, Torild Wardenær, Jórunn Skáldmær, Einar Økland, Espen Stueland, Arvid Torgeir Lie, Eldrid Lunden, Bjørn Aamodt, Bertrand Besigye, Arild Stubhaug, Per Sivle, Helge Rykkja, Espen Haavardsholm, Per Arneberg, Trygve Bjørgo, Aasne Linnestå, Jan Bull, Rønnaug Kleiva, Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, Astrid Tollefsen, Åge Rønning, Geir Pollen, Niels Fredrik Dahl, Jan Erik Vold, Kristine Næss,...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=225698 ... Read more