Described as 'a masterpiece' by Stefan Zweig, this extraordinary novel of love, war, ghosts and memory features an introduction by Patti Smith

Baron Bagge, a cavalry officer in the Carpathian Mountains during the First World War, receives orders from his unhinged commander to ride into Russian machine guns. But instead of meeting certain death, he and his brigade pass, unscathed, into a peaceful, otherworldly country where festivities are in full swing. There he meets Charlotte Szent-Kiraly, and finds himself entangled in a strange love - a love harrowed at its edges by the threat of the enemy, and intimations from his fellow officers about the nature of his survival...

Baron Bagge - Alexander Lernet-Holenia's masterpiece - glimmers with a wintry, exquisite light. A story of duty and desire, courage and stupidity, it is a waking dream of a novel; haunting in every sense. This edition includes an exchange between Lernet-Holenia and Stefan Zweig, one of the novella's most stalwart champions.

Preface by Patti Smith
Translated by Richard and Clara Winston

About the Author
Alexander Lernet-Holenia (Author)
Alexander Lernet-Holenia was born in Vienna in 1897. He served in the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War and became a protege of Rainer Maria Rilke. During his life he wrote poetry, novels, plays and was a successful screenwriter. His books were included on the first Nazi blacklist and subsequently burned, but after the end of the Second World War, he again became a vital figure in Austrian cultural life.

Richard Winston (Translator)
Richard & Clara Winston, born in New York and educated at Brooklyn College, won several awards (the American Book Award and the PEN Translation Prize) for their translations of Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt, Albert Speer, and Hermann Hesse.



Reviews
A rare sort of book; more like a romantic, snowbound fever dream... A story about love and valour, war and idiocy. * The Times *
An utterly captivating account of the absurdity of war, the boundary between life and death, and love as a survival exercise -- Lea Ypi
Accomplished and distinctive... blending military narratives, paranormal experiences and erotic obsessions * TLS *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241615614
Author Alexander Lernet-Holenia
Format Hardback
Page Count 96
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 197g
Dimensions(mm) 204mm * 138mm * 15mm