Murder, lust, shame, hypocrisy, and suicide are at the center of The Guiltless, Hermann Broch's postwar novel about the disintegration of European society in the decades preceding the Second World War. Broch's characters--apathetic, cruel, or indolent--are trapped in their indifference, prisoners of a "wakeful somnolence." They may mention the "imbecile Hitler," yet they prefer sex or a nap to any social action. Broch thought such ethical perversity and political apathy paved the way for Nazism and hoped that by revealing Germany's underlying guilt he could purge indifference from his own and future generations. In The Guiltless, Broch captures how ennui--a very human failing--evolves into something dehumanizing and dangerous.

The Guiltless: A Novel in Eleven Stories

Herman Broch

Little,Brown & Co

<p>Marius Ratti, a drifter and Hitler-like figure, arrives in a small mountain village, contaminating it with his virulent, pestilential influence, in this parable of Hitler's rise to power</p>

The Spell

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

NORTH POINT PRESS

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Herman Broch. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Herman Broch

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Herman Broch. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Guiltless: A Novel in Eleven Stories

The Spell