134th out of 608 books
—
757 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Gargoyles” as Want to Read:
Gargoyles
The playwright and novelist Thomas Bernhard was one of the most widely translated and admired writers of his generation, winner of the three most coveted literary prizes in Germany. Gargoyles, one of his earliest novels, is a singular, surreal study of the nature of humanity.
One morning a doctor and his son set out on daily rounds through the grim mountainous Austrian coun ...more
One morning a doctor and his son set out on daily rounds through the grim mountainous Austrian coun ...more
Paperback, 208 pages
Published
October 17th 2006
by Random House Vintage International
(first published 1967)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Gargoyles,
please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about Gargoyles
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,198)
This was Thomas Bernhard before Thomas Bernhard was Thomas Bernhard. It's like he hadn't quite found the sweet spot yet. The first half is a very starchy, hopelessly Euro narrative about a doctor and his son visiting all the freaks and losers in the Austrian countryside. These two characters are so wooden and theoretical that I wanted them to get the hell out of the way so that I could enjoy the book because I definitely found the freaks and losers far more entertaining than their soporific disc
...more
Jul 01, 2012
Ben Winch
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
austrian,
mainland-european
I notice some bad reviews for this one by folk who otherwise love Bernhard, and I have to say they puzzle me. In fact, the whole cult of Bernhard - which I've only really discovered since coming to Goodreads - puzzles me in some way, as does (I suppose) my own cultish behaviour towards him in the years when I read him often. Not that I ever really worshipped the guy, but I kept reading, partly just from a desire to find out why anyone would be driven to write as he did. Thus, after starting with
...more
Perturbação é um romance ou uma dissertação sobre a porcaria que é a vida humana?
Um médico faz a visita diária aos seus doentes, acompanhado pelo filho, o narrador de um texto dividido em duas partes, que têm como ponto de união a família e o amor ou a indiferença que une/desune pais, filhos, irmãos...
- a primeira parte é composta por histórias de gente em sofrimento físico e cuja leitura, embora triste, é fácil de interiorizar e compreender;
- a segunda é o discurso alucinante de um homem, apare ...more
Um médico faz a visita diária aos seus doentes, acompanhado pelo filho, o narrador de um texto dividido em duas partes, que têm como ponto de união a família e o amor ou a indiferença que une/desune pais, filhos, irmãos...
- a primeira parte é composta por histórias de gente em sofrimento físico e cuja leitura, embora triste, é fácil de interiorizar e compreender;
- a segunda é o discurso alucinante de um homem, apare ...more
The original German title for Bernhard's third novel is Verstörung; this translates as Disturbance, as in something not quite right but not fully insane. This is an apt reflection of a novel that walks and teeters precariously around the bubbling edges of incapacitating madness; yet Gargoyles presents an image that also accurately describes the procession of twisted and grotesque beings that litter the frigid and menacing hinterlands of the Austrian province of Styria - a series of wracked figur
...more
Half panorama of the freaks of one large stretch of Austria, half the study of one particular man's psychosis, this is a novel to be read with marked patience and attention. And it is a strange experience no matter how you go about it. At any given moment, I was either reading a passage so repetitious that it made me talk to myself, actually vocalizing "Grrrrr, come ON" *fist pound*, or perhaps the very next passage that was so lovely I read it over and over again and stuck a little scrap of jag
...more
A young man home from college joins his father as he makes his rounds visiting patients at their homes. They visit the dead wife of a barkeep, whom was bludgeoned to death by a drunken patron the night before. They visit a man who lives with his sister and who is a crazy musical genius. They visit the mill owner and his two sons who have killed off all these rare birds the night before, not that the big pile of dead birds has anything to do with the doctor and his son visiting; and then with a l
...more
Una delle cose più folli che abbia mai letto.
Un libro che parla di gente malata e pazza e non recuperabile.
Di gente sempre sul punto di togliersi la vita.
La carrellata di personaggi assurdi va dall’industriale ritiratosi in un padiglione di caccia al figlio storpio dei Krainer che vive in un letto circondato da una gabbia.
Le prime 50/60 pagine sono tese ma non irraggiungibili. Anche a livello tipografico, con gli a capo al punto giusto, fanno meno paura.
Tutto troppo semplice per essere Bernhard ...more
Un libro che parla di gente malata e pazza e non recuperabile.
Di gente sempre sul punto di togliersi la vita.
La carrellata di personaggi assurdi va dall’industriale ritiratosi in un padiglione di caccia al figlio storpio dei Krainer che vive in un letto circondato da una gabbia.
Le prime 50/60 pagine sono tese ma non irraggiungibili. Anche a livello tipografico, con gli a capo al punto giusto, fanno meno paura.
Tutto troppo semplice per essere Bernhard ...more
I'm entering into my second phase of Bernhard. In which I am no longer enamoured simply with Bernhard being Bernhard (though I enjoy it immensely). I know what he does, and I know he does it well, so what more can I say about a Bernhard book? There is no point focussing on the repetition, only that it's there. And no point focussing on the misanthropy or the humor or the very intentional style, only that it's there.
What interested me about this early Bernhard is that those things were not in pla ...more
What interested me about this early Bernhard is that those things were not in pla ...more
Not a Bernhard I can imagine going back to read in its entirety. This is most interesting in a literary history kind of way: it lets us watch Bernhard slowly become BERNHARD, as other reviewers have pointed out. The book falls in half, starting off as a Celinean medical picaresque, and closing with Bernhard rant delivered, oddly in hindsight, in the third person. The picaresque reminded me of the wonderful Joseph Winkler, only Winkler does it better. The rant reminds me of later Bernhard, which
...more
Con la lectura de cada obra de Bernhard, creo que voy conociéndolo mejor. Su literatura se compone de todos aquellos temas que le obsesionaron, la enfermedad, la mezquindad, la incomunicación, la violencia, la locura del ser humano. Esto lo tenía claro, pero también me he ido dando cuenta de que Bernhard tiene un sentido del humor muy peculiar, casi hilarante en algunas de las situaciones que plantea. Y que una literatura tan oscura, deprimente y pesimista como la de este escritor también te hag
...more
"Le silence éternel de ces espaces infinis m'effraye..."
Subir ao Hochgobernitz é uma escalada que se faz ao contrário. A subida ao castelo do príncipe Saurau é uma descida ao interior de uma loucura onde o ser se dispersou ao ponto da destruição.
Embrenhados numa ruralidade brutal e sombria (de cujos efeitos não podem também escapar), acompanhamos o médico local e o seu filho nas visitas a doentes que parecem tanto mais perturbados e destruídos (como se o físico fosse um espelho do interior) quan ...more
Subir ao Hochgobernitz é uma escalada que se faz ao contrário. A subida ao castelo do príncipe Saurau é uma descida ao interior de uma loucura onde o ser se dispersou ao ponto da destruição.
Embrenhados numa ruralidade brutal e sombria (de cujos efeitos não podem também escapar), acompanhamos o médico local e o seu filho nas visitas a doentes que parecem tanto mais perturbados e destruídos (como se o físico fosse um espelho do interior) quan ...more
Perturbamento è uno dei romanzi più pessimistici che io abbia mai letto. La visione che aveva Bernhard della sua terra natale era veramente tremenda. Inutile aggiungere che, di conseguenza, non è mai stato molto amato in patria.
Più che di un vero proprio romanzo, forse, sarebbe più corretto parlare di un succedersi di monologhi, in cui i diversi personaggi espongono situazioni, avvenimenti e considerazioni che, a partire dal particolare, finiscono per esprimere il generale. Il panorama è davver ...more
Più che di un vero proprio romanzo, forse, sarebbe più corretto parlare di un succedersi di monologhi, in cui i diversi personaggi espongono situazioni, avvenimenti e considerazioni che, a partire dal particolare, finiscono per esprimere il generale. Il panorama è davver ...more
A warning, one must be in the correct mind-state to approach this novel. It is short, but it took me over a week to read, because I was not internalized enough to be still to read it the way it demands. Also I kept “hearing” Popol Vuh AKA Herzog film soundtracks, in my head while reading this. Why? Is it because the cover had an image reminiscent of Nosferatu –(actually that was the particular soundtrack that would play in my head while reading). Perhaps. Or maybe it was the mysterious Austrian
...more
Sep 09, 2007
Saxon
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
fans of stories with dark, and subtle surreality.
If you have read an interview or read about Bernhard then it becomes immediately obvious that the man is a bit mad and a borderline nihilist. Nevertheless, I often find myself strangely fascinated with his outlook on the world and I even sometimes agree with him. At first, it seems that this man sees a very bleak and meaningless world; which is true. However, his total willingness to take this world in with all his horror, tragedy and confusion is nothing short of amazing.
Gargoyles is what one w ...more
Gargoyles is what one w ...more
May 24, 2012
pierlapo quimby
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
germanici-e-scandinavi
In viaggio tra i monti e le valli della Stiria accompagniamo nel suo giro di visite il medico locale e con lui entriamo in osterie e mulini, fattorie e castelli, e dopo ogni incontro con la varia umanità del luogo, sino all'ossessivo e disturbante soliloquio del principe Saurau, ci sentiamo come oppressi, preda di una tensione che ci atterrisce, tra attrazione e repulsione veniamo rapiti da quello che vediamo ma al tempo stesso cresce in noi il desiderio di lasciarcelo al più presto alle spalle,
...more
A storm of madness, suicide, caged boys, disease, cruelty, and newspapers. The air is getting sucked out of our atmosphere and the prince won't stop talking...a modern inferno, a mixture of anger and beauty in the tradition of Beckett.
Though this isn't my favorite Bernhard novel, it's still pretty breathtaking. I think the first half of the novel works better than the second, which is strange since the first half is less "Bernhardesque" than the last half. But then, this was only his second novel, and he was still finding out how to fully effectively wield his monologue/rant style with which he closes this novel.
Still, there's much brilliance here, and a heaping dose of distrust, paranoia, fear, and a generally jaded view of ...more
Still, there's much brilliance here, and a heaping dose of distrust, paranoia, fear, and a generally jaded view of ...more
Curioso... A tratti intrigante e originale, a tratti estenuante (e originale). La netta divisione in 2 parti molto diverse segnala un progetto che però è difficile da penetrare completamente e ancor più da farsi piacere.
La prima metà si presenta come una passeggiata all'inferno insieme a un padre e un figlio entrambi consapevoli che brutalità, follia, morte e suicidio sono ovunque, sono un dato naturale con cui si è costretti a convivere ("tutto è malato e triste"). Eppure la scrittura non è ap ...more
La prima metà si presenta come una passeggiata all'inferno insieme a un padre e un figlio entrambi consapevoli che brutalità, follia, morte e suicidio sono ovunque, sono un dato naturale con cui si è costretti a convivere ("tutto è malato e triste"). Eppure la scrittura non è ap ...more
My second Bernhard, and I'd put the rating somewhere between 3 and 4. Where Concrete is lead by an alluring, mesmerizingly cantankerous voice of a procrastinating narrator, and is wrapped up with as quietly tangible (and nearly literal) a memento mori as ever kissed off the end of a book, Gargoyles doesn't quite come together. Still, any Bernhard is worth far more than most any book.
The German title is Verstörung, which I believe translates as Disturbance. I do not know whether in German the wor ...more
The German title is Verstörung, which I believe translates as Disturbance. I do not know whether in German the wor ...more
Este livro andava lá por casa há muito tempo. Sempre o evitei por - e não minto, meus amores - ter uma capa feia e uma descrição na contracapa que anunciava uma lamechice insuportável. Ocorre-me qualquer coisa sobre juízos e capas de livros e coiso e tal.
Ignorante de quem era Thomas Bernhard, comecei a ler Perturbações sem grande excitação na moleirinha. Mas depois veio aquele desfile de bizarrias, um festival de personagens grotescas e maravilhosas que iam sendo visitadas pelo médico e pelo seu ...more
Ignorante de quem era Thomas Bernhard, comecei a ler Perturbações sem grande excitação na moleirinha. Mas depois veio aquele desfile de bizarrias, um festival de personagens grotescas e maravilhosas que iam sendo visitadas pelo médico e pelo seu ...more
A monologue, or series of monologues, related by madmen and suicides. Suicide is important to Bernhard. You might even call it his idee fixe. And there were times, I'll admit, while reading this novel, when I myself considered suicide. Somewhere deep within the haunted forest of the novel's second half, the prince's rambling narrative, I wondered what it would be like to shut my eyes, to never open them again. (My visions of suicide are always pain free.)
This novel is gloom-ridden and intentiona ...more
This novel is gloom-ridden and intentiona ...more
My first introduction to Bernhard was actually an interview published in a recent Harper's. He comes across as a curmudgeon, and that's enough for me to be at least a little interested. I'm also in the process of reading Beckett's novels and Bernhard is often compared to Beckett...my experience so far is that Bernhard is much easier to follow...
I liked Gargoyles a lot. The first section deals with a rural a doctor and his college-aged son going on patient rounds. Every incident is fairly odd or ...more
I liked Gargoyles a lot. The first section deals with a rural a doctor and his college-aged son going on patient rounds. Every incident is fairly odd or ...more
About what you expect from a novel set in the Waldheim-voting incestuous backwoods of Middle Europe, especially if you've read Bernhard before. One decrepit prince in an equally decrepit castle, a lot of vile-seeming Catholics milling about. It's not the best Bernhard I've read, not by a wide margin, but if you like the derangement and bitterness that mark his other novels (or derangement and bitterness in general), you'll probably like Gargoyles.
This is a thoroughly strange book. I've been puzzling over its slim 200 pages for two months, and I'm still not done. The narrative is loose--a boy goes on the rounds with his father, a doctor. By page 80, they have arrived at the estate of a deranged prince, and the remaining 120 pages are devoted to the rantings of said prince.
There's almost no effort to help you, the reader, make sense of what is happening or why this is important. And yet it doesn't feel self-indulgent--there's a muscular q ...more
There's almost no effort to help you, the reader, make sense of what is happening or why this is important. And yet it doesn't feel self-indulgent--there's a muscular q ...more
Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian writer and his work is basically understood to be almost entirely auto-biographical, housing his consideration of human existence beneath a thin fictional guise. His work includes almost no description of anything physical, instead creating a very detailed inner life for his characters. I just finished reading Camus' Exile and the Kingdom, and the two have similar styles. I'm really enjoying this book, which is narrated by the son of a country doctor, accompanying
...more
I read The Loser a few months ago and I'd have to say I liked that one a bit more than this one, but not enough to drop the overall rating. That said, this is certainly a fascinating, often mind-opening read. Still, it's not something I would read very often, and finishing this in two sittings might be a bit more than most people want to do. Bernhard's stream-of-consciousness style of writing isn't for everyone.
The long rambles of the Prince reminded me a bit of the feverish rantings of Dostoev ...more
The long rambles of the Prince reminded me a bit of the feverish rantings of Dostoev ...more
direi che si possa dividere in due parti: la prima racconta di un giovane studente che accompagna il padre medico nel suo solito giro di visite nella campagna austriaca. la seconda è, invece, il deliro lucido e paranoico di uno di questi pazienti, misantropo e nichilista, che occupa per intero l'altra metà del libro. è proprio questa seconda metà che probabilmente colpisce di più, un soliloquio lungo 100 pagine che tocca in maniera profonda argomenti come l'isolamento volontario, il rapporto pad
...more
Un viaggio nel grottesco affondare di un’umanità perturbata, consumata, putrefatta, sempre furiosamente o lucidamente folle. Un libro terminale, senza speranza, che scava nel profondo della nostra scelleratezza e che culmina nella totale squalifica del mondo presente.
Permane nell’aria l’incombere della morte, e il malinconico ricordo di un glorioso, imponente passato, il cui lascito noi, eredi falliti, abbiamo ottusamente dilaniato.
Non rimane che desolazione.
Permane nell’aria l’incombere della morte, e il malinconico ricordo di un glorioso, imponente passato, il cui lascito noi, eredi falliti, abbiamo ottusamente dilaniato.
Non rimane che desolazione.
"And there is something else that is unbearable," he said. "The composers of symphonies always have symphonies on their minds, writers always have writing, builders always building, circus dancers always circus dancing - it's unendurable." (pg. 145)
My first Bernhard. I don't know why I enjoyed this novel as much as I did. I really shouldn't have. On the surface it is boring and exhausting, and yet, I haven't been this inspired by a novel in a long while.
At it's heart this is a novel about ideas ...more
My first Bernhard. I don't know why I enjoyed this novel as much as I did. I really shouldn't have. On the surface it is boring and exhausting, and yet, I haven't been this inspired by a novel in a long while.
At it's heart this is a novel about ideas ...more
A novel that turns the mind against itself by constantly questioning its own nature and what the fuck it means to be a novel? Plus, it drives the reader to ask inane questions of it. Sometimes it's hard to define what makes a novel really good...and what makes a novel really bad. Articulating like or dislike or trying to enumerate the problems of/laud a novel can be a tricky thing when you yourself find it nigh impossible to describe what the novel actually IS. And it isn't because it's abstruse
...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gargoyles/ Fallen angels | 1 | 4 | Jan 26, 2015 06:29AM |
Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian author, who ranges among the most distinguished German speaking writers of the second half of the 20th century.
Although internationally he's most acclaimed because of his novels, he was also a prolific playwright. His characters were oftenly working in a lifetime and never-ending major work while they deal with themes such as suicide, madness and obsession and, as B ...more
More about Thomas Bernhard...
Although internationally he's most acclaimed because of his novels, he was also a prolific playwright. His characters were oftenly working in a lifetime and never-ending major work while they deal with themes such as suicide, madness and obsession and, as B ...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“It would be wrong to refuse to face the fact that everything is fundamentally sick and sad.”
—
115 likes
“Everyone, he went on, speaks a language he does not understand, but which now and then is understood by others. That is enough to permit one to exist and at least to be misunderstood.”
—
50 likes
More quotes…
