Talk:Austerlitz (novel)

List of Places

Sebald takes the reader to a number of clearly described places. I list some of them below. Other contributors might like to make the list complete.

• Antwerp Central Station
• Fort Breendonk (between Mechelen/Malines and Antwerp)
• Bala (in what is now Gwynedd in N. Wales but was formerly Merioneth)
• Lake Vyrnwy (Bala is surrounded by artificial lakes that serve as reservoirs)
• Barmouth (Austerlitz travels to Barmouth on a now defunct railway)
• The East End of London
• Prague
• Theresienstadt / Terezin
• Paris
• Gare d'Austerlitz

Although other places are mentioned, visited for example with his foster father, I think these are, apart from his school, the prime loci.

Everybody got to be somewhere! (talk) 14:57, 14 October 2011 (UTC) Everybody got to be somewhere! (talk) 15:42, 19 January 2012 (UTC) Everybody got to be somewhere! (talk) 15:54, 19 January 2012 (UTC) Everybody got to be somewhere! (talk) 16:03, 19 January 2012 (UTC) Everybody got to be somewhere! (talk) 21:44, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Ark

The word ark appears specifically in three connections The reed basket in which the daughter of Levy places the future Moses is referred to as an ark. Sebald reads this episode in a child's version of Bible stories in the house in Bala. The story fills him with dread. The subsequent specific mentions are in the billiard room and the masonic temple. The Bibliothèque Nationale is not referred to as a (failed) ark but the metaphor is complete with birds crashing into the plate glass windows of the building, cfr. the returning dove with its olive branch. Austerlitz's reaction to the sight of an ark is visceral, not surprising as the ark itself a metaphor for the Kindertransport. Everybody got to be somewhere! (talk) 23:02, 13 February 2021 (UTC)

The end of the plot section is not about the plot

The plot summary presented here is excellent — except for the final two sentences, which are jarringly out of place:

“[…] Marie de Verneuil, a young Frenchwoman with whom he became acquainted in the library, helps nurse him back to health. Sebald explores the ways in which collections of records, such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France or National Library of France, entomb memories. During the novel the reader is taken on a guided tour of a lost European civilization: a world of fortresses, railway stations, concentration camps and libraries.”

This passage is especially confusing for the abrupt transition between fictional characters and the real world, like breaking the fourth wall.

The final paragraph directly mentions and/or describes:

1. “Marie de Verneuil”, a fictional character;
2. “Sebald”, the author;
3. the themes the author “explores”;
4. “the novel”;
5. ”the reader”.; and
6. the “guided tour” upon which the reader is taken.

Only the first of these things belongs in a plot summary. The others are better categorised as interpretation or analysis. They belong in another section, and they require citations.

On that note, I might add: these two sentences sound a lot like something you might read in a blurb, press release, or book review. When I have the time, I’ll try to find a source that resembles them.

Until then: does anybody object to simply removing these two errant sentences? Foxmilder (talk) 00:20, 28 December 2023 (UTC)