The No1 Ethical retailer for Books, CD’s, DVD’s & Games
30 Day Refund Guarantee

Women as Lovers (Masks)

Women as Lovers (Masks)

by Martin Chalmers (Translator), Martin Chalmers (Translator), Elfriede Jelinek (Author)

  • New

    Paperback 1994

    $17.32
Synopsis

The setting is an idyllic Alpine village where a woman's underwear factory nestles in the woods. Two factory workers, Brigitte and Paula, dream and talk about finding happiness, a comfortable home and a good man. They realize that their quest will be as hard as work at the factory. Brigitte subordinates her feelings and goes for for Heinz, a young, plump, up-and-coming businessman. With Paula, feelings and dreams become confused. She gets pregnant by Erich, the forestry worker. He's handsome, so they marry. Brigitte gets it right. Paula gets it wrong. Using the conventions and language of romantic fiction, Elfriede Jelinek has written a moving tragedy whose power lies in its refusal to take at face value its characters' dreams and aspirations.

$17.32

Save:$3.63 (17%)

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 208
 Edition: Main
 Publisher: Serpent's Tail
Published: 15 Nov 1994
ISBN 10: 1852422378
ISBN 13: 9781852422370

Media Reviews
A chilling and truthful vision of women's precarious position in a society still dominated by money and men * Kirkus Reviews *
With formidable power, intelligence and skill she draws on the full arsenal of derision. Her dense writing is obsessive almost to the point of being unbearable. It hits you in the guts, yet is clinically precise * Le Monde *
Jelinek's jaundiced view of love and marriage in the claustrophobic surroundings of rural Austria seem close to Karl Marx's view that marriage in bourgeois society is little more than legalised prostitution... Like Thomas Bernhard and the turn-of-the-century satirist Karl Kraus, Jelinek belongs to a long line of Austrian literary outsiders who, while relentlessly satirising the hypocrisy of their native bourgeois culture, have been clasped firmly to the establishment's bosom as cherished examples of Austria's enduring excellence in the arts. * The European *
Demystifying the idea of love and romance, post-modernist/feminist author Jelinek brings to light some feminist interests in terms of work, love, marriage, perception of life, happiness, etc, through the contrasting stories of her two protagonists * Library Journal *
Author Bio
Elfriede Jelinek was born in Austria in 1946 and grew up in Vienna where she attended the famous Music Conservatory. The leading Austrian writer of her generation, she has been awarded the Heinrich Boell Prize for her contribution to German literature. The film by Michael Haneke of The Piano Teacher won the three main prizes at Cannes in 2001. In 2004, Elfriede Jelinek was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.