Product Description
This is the famous and highly acclaimed classic work that tells the true story surrounding the miraculous visions of St. Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, France in 1858. Werfel, a highly respected literary writer who was an outspoken anti-Nazi from Vienna, became a Jewish refugee who barely escaped death from the Nazis in 1940, and wrote this moving story to fulfill a promise he made to God. Thus the story of how this book about a miracle came to be written is in itselfsomething of a miracle.

As he and his wife were hiding out in the little village of Loudres while trying to escape to freedom in the USA during WWII, Werfel felt the Nazi noose tightening around them and realizing that they might well be caught and executed, he made a promise to God to write about the "song of Bernadette" that he had been deeply inspired by during their clandestine stay in Lourdes.

An amazing aspect of this powerful portrayal of a Catholic saint and an essentially Catholic story is that Werfel was a rather secular Jew, and yet he was so deeply impressed by both Bernadette and the happenings at Lourdes, that his writing has a profound sense of Catholicism's sacramental imagination about the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

St. Bernadette
Bought this for my wife who introduced me to this person via the movie from the 1940s.

Satisfied Customer
The book was in excellent condition and arrived promptly and without issue.It was an extremely easy transaction and I'm thrilled with the product and service.My only disappointment was that the photo of the item for sale displayed the dust cover but it did not arrive with one.It would have been preferable to receive it as shown in the photo.Other than that, I'm a very satisfied customer and would do business with this seller again and again.

I Pray To God My Soul To Keep
I've just completed the reading of Franz Werfel's "The Song of Bernadette" and its left me glowing with grace.

This epic story, based on actual events, is a challenging yet engrossing read from beginning to end.I enjoyed living with the graceful innocence of the blessed Bernadette Soubirous.So much of her life was a blueprint for us mortal sinners on how to live in appreciation of our gift of life.

The author, Franz Werfel, shows us how a wordsmith can enchant readers with a story that captures the imagination and teaches as it preaches.

I will not soon forget "The Song of Bernadette," simply because a talented writer's promise to God to write about these immaculate events has stood the test of time.

This being my third book by Franz Werfel, I now understand what attracts me so to his classical voice; Franz's style of writing, though a difficult read today due to translation and half a century's old style, speaks directly to man's sense of what is Holy and righteous.It matters not your religion, if you read this story with an open heart to truth, you'll receive its timeless fountain of blessings.

Man and Womankind are truly eternal souls inhabiting earthly bodies with incredibly blinding minds.

"Not wealth but poverty is the last refuge of materialism.
Need and want are condemned to overestimate the value of common material things." pg.258

A Masterpiece!

The Song of Bernadette
First of all, I sent in my e-mail order on 11/18/2009, my book was shipped the next day on 11/19/2009 and I received it on 11/23/2009.WOW! What fast and excellent service.And the book was in very good shape.I believe it to be a book published in 1942 and is an actual 1942 published book.The story is very well done and parts of the history of the Lourdes visions of Mary to Bernadette are new to me even though I am somewhat knowledgeable of what happened thanks to a book on St. Bernadette by Mosignor Trochout (spelling).
I want to thank both amazon. com and the company for their excellent service.Keep up the great work and have a most blessed Christmas Season

a wonderful book
I'm not sure I can add much to what other reviewers here have said except to say that I love this book.It is inspiring, moving, shrewd and insightful.It explores the worldly surounds of the events themselves and yet the character of Bernadette only shines out with greater simplicity.Further, I found it difficult to detach Bernadette in my mind from the mother of God, who became the focus of Bernadette's life.Bernadette's honesty and capacity for enduring suffering comes through this book with authenticity.I have read historical studies of Bernadette and Lourdes by Laurentin and Ruth Harris.They only highlight how faithful is Franz Werfel to the sources and how well he has discerned his characters. Perhaps Werfel's own sufferings as a refugee in Nazi occupied Europe gave him insights into the transformation of Bernadette in her encounters with the Mother of God.Frankly this has been one of the most powerful books I have ever read--my copy is old and battered but highly valued. ... Read more

Product Description
In February 1940 Franz Werfel began work on an "intricate little tale of a marriage," which, he warned his publisher, was quite a departure from his best-selling fiction of the 1930s. This new short novel was to be a tragicomic tale of contemporary history, a glimpse into a world that was soon to become inhospitable and uninhabitable.

Pale Blue Ink in a Lady's Hand is, in many ways, a prequel to what is known as Holocaust literature. It is about a long suppressed love triangle between Leonidas Tachezy, a high-level Austrian career bureaucrat, his younger, trophy wife Amelie, and a Jewish woman from his past, Vera Wormser, with whom he'd fallen in love when she was fourteen. After his marriage, Leonidas encounters Vera in a German university town where she is studying philosophy. He makes a promise that implies marriage, but drops out of her life entirely to return to a comfortable existence until one day when a letter arrives, addressed with Vera's unmistakable handwriting in pale blue ink. Like Humbert Humbert in Lolita, Leonidas explains his "crime" against Vera to an imaginary courtroom in a way that anticipates Nabokov. The evasions and self-deceptions of Werfel's characters, the various Austrian types both Jewish and non-Jewish and the pervading breathless air of anti-Semitism capture interwar Austria in its poignant eleventh hour of toleration, the heart of Werfel's subject in this twisted love story.

Prior to the current NEA-award-winning translation, Pale Blue Ink in a Lady's Hand was the only Werfel novel never before published in book form in English translation. Available now to a new generation of readers in America, this translation of Werfel's novella powerfully suggests that Werfel still belongs in the same company as his contemporaries Mann, Kafka, Canetti, Musil, and other Central Europeans whose works have a permanent place in the world canon. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This book blew my mind
I thought I knew a lot about Franz Werfel, but after reading this book I stand corrected.This book literally blew me away, both with its depth and its clarity.Dr. Wagener has obviously devoted a great deal of his life to understanding Franz Werfel and his influences and it shows.This book dissects Werfel in ways I didn't think possible, providing much greater insight into what made the legend that is Werfel tick.True to form, Dr. Wagener's prose is powerful and insightful.Through his masterful pen, Dr. Wagener demonstrates -- indeed, he inspires -- a profound personal deep respect for Werfel for what Werfel gave the world in his writings.This is a remarkable and beautifully written "must have" for anyone interested in modern German literature, whether a novice or expert such as myself.Even if you have no interest in the subject area you will not be able to put this book down.Well done, Dr. Wagener!I am eagerly awaiting your next literary creation! ... Read more

Product Description
1990 will see the 100th anniversary of the birth of Franz Werfel. The time has therefore come to reassess this writer whom Kafka called a 'miracle' and who to this day has a large and devoted following. The essays colleced in this volume were first given at an international symposium; they throw new light on various aspects of Werfel's poerty, drama and fiction which are put in the context of contemporary developments such as Freud's ideas, Experssionism and Austrian historical drama. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is the first to discuss the critical response to Franz Werfel (1890-1945), the German writer acclaimed in several genres, poetry, drama and the novel. His first collection of lyric poetry, Der Weltfreund (1911), made him famous in German-speaking countries as a leading Expressionist poet, admired by his contemporaries; his dramas were premiered on important stages in Germany and Austria, and during his exile in America the Broadway production of his play Jacobowsky and the Colonel won a Critics' Award in 1944. As a novelist, Werfel gained much popular success, with English translations of his novels becoming bestsellers. However, after his death in 1945 his popularity declined precipitately, and only recently has there been a revival of critical interest in his work. Franz Werfel and the Critics highlights the aspects of his work which have aroused the most critical interest, shows the trends in Werfel criticism which have shaped his reputation as a writer and thinker, and indicates areas for future research; it also discusses responses to Werfel's controversial religious and political beliefs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superb survey of Thoreavian criticism
Gary Scharnhorst read and digested virtually every commentary on Henry Thoreau in English from the earliest reviews to the critical studies up to the time of this book's publication.The book is a gift to Thoreau's fans and scholars.Scharnhorst doesn't play favorites with any critical approach.He offers a balanced view of everything he considers, noting trends and doing brief content summaries to save readers many hours of work.Anyone researching Thoreau at the graduate or professional level should see this book. ... Read more