Notes from Hampstead

From the Nobel Laureate, “a collection of beguiling fragments . . . provides brief, tantalizing glimpses of a brilliant mind in conversation with itself. —(The New York Times Book Review).

Notes from Hampstead is a map to the late Elias Canetti's thinking, a triumphant compendium of aphoristic, enigmatic, and expository writings covering a characteristically diverse range of subjects: the significance of mythology and ethnicity, the nature of creativity, the extraordinary hold violence has on the 20th century, literary history (one learns of Canetti's affection for Cervantes, Stendhal, and Gogol, and his adoration of Kafka), and, always, there is a fierce quarrel with death.

Canetti draws on the troubled period following the death of his wife and the publication of his masterwork of social theory, Crowds and Power. An ambivalent interest in spiritualism also characterizes the collection: Canetti's conversations with Jesuits and Indian gurus, and his readings of Greek, Hebrew, and primitive myths give a kaleidoscopic view of the uses and abuses of religion.

“A stimulating and provoking book.” —Library Journal

“Reading this volume could be likened to touring the workshop of a master sculptor. No piece is finished: Some seem abandoned, some seem in progress, some are scarcely recognizable, yet each exists for its own sake, and each bears the distinctive marks of the master's chisel.” —Kirkus Reviews