After Nature (Modern Library (Paperback))

Love the content of this book. The copy I received, however, was manufactured poorly. Top cover doesn't quite meet edge of pages, and first page extends 1/8 inch beyond the rest. Other odd thing, the cover text is crooked. Couldn't wait to read it so started making notes on pages. Debating whether or not to order new copy, as it feels so odd in my hands.

A collection of the author's final writings.

W.G.Sebald's grotesque death at the beginning of the millennium, just as his work was becoming widely known, cut short the work of one of the most important prose writers of our time. Perhaps the one accidental benefit has been that readers, desperate to add to the short shelf of his books, have turned to his poetry. What seemed incidental is now, given enough attention, being seen as another facet of his gifts. Written in blank verse, After Nature is accessible, yet--like everything he wrote--combines originality of expression with deeply thought and felt observations on life since the middle of the twentieth century.

I am sorely disappointed that the electronic version had NO photos. I know the actual book does. Photographs and illustrations were part of the art of Sebald. Shouldn't be allowed to give a reader only PART of a book. I will be avoiding future electronic media and go for the book in hand.

I had to read this for a literature course at Columbia. It's an extremely easy read, and short, but there's some pretty amazing things done with this unique book.

Really enjoyable

Brilliant---mesmerizing.captures the Sebald essence in riveting poetry. Should be required reading.

This triptych of three long poems by W.G. Sebald is a jewel-like ornament to his four major prose works, "Vertigo," "The Emigrants," "The Rings of Saturn" and "Austerlitz." I found the first and third poems, dealing with the shadowy German Renaissance painter Matthias Grunewald and with Sebald himself, superior to the second section, on Arctic exploration, but I fully expect other readers to judge for themselves and judge differently. The burning power of what is best in all of Sebald's works is encapsulated in a few lines from the third poem here, describing Sebald's reaction after viewing a painting of the destruction of Sodom in the Kunsthistorisches Museum:When for the first time I sawthis picture the year before last,I had the strange feelingof having seen all of itbefore, and a little later,crossing to Floridsdorfon the Bridge of Peace,I nearly went out of my mind.

I read this for a book group, otherwise I probably wouldn't have picked it up; really glad I did though! It is subtly written and fascinating. I had to look up lots of the references, as I didn't know the artist or botanist who are 'characters' in this long poem. The translation seems excellent. What most surprised me, I think, was that it was funny! What a clever, clever man Sebald was!

One of my favourite writers

Pleased with service and contents for personal use.

Thoroughly enjoyed the other worldly space of this book

W.G. Sebald's writing is original and new. It is a tragedy he is lost to us. His writing stimulates our long-forgotten thoughts, which cause the reader to re-assess what has been almost forgotten. At the same time, his words shimmer and delight us, as dreams can do, bathing light on the most obscure, but important concepts.