Novel
On the Marble Cliffs
Auf den Marmorklippen
Ernst Jünger · 1939
Synopsis
The narrator lives with his brother Otho in a hermitage built on marble cliffs, above the Marina, a land of vineyards and old towns on the shore of a great lake. Former soldiers, the two brothers devote themselves to the study of plants, to their herbarium and to their library. To the north, beyond the pastures, stretch the forests of the Head Forester, whose bands spread violence through the countryside and whose men gradually insinuate themselves among the notables of the Marina.
Context
The narrative appeared in 1939 in Hamburg, from the Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt; from 1942, the paper needed for new printings was refused it. Readers have recognised in the Chief Ranger now Hitler, now Göring, now Stalin; Jünger said he had Hitler in mind while writing it, but refused to have it seen only as a book of resistance, since the type could fit several dictators. Henri Thomas's translation appeared from Gallimard as early as 1942. In English, Stuart Hood's translation (1947) was followed by that of Tess Lewis, published in New York in 2023.
Who it is for
A short narrative in thirty chapters, told in the first person, set in an imaginary country and read like a fable.
Prizes and reception
Six printings in Germany between 1939 and 1942; an opera by Giorgio Battistelli, premiered in Mannheim in 2002.
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