Letter to Lord Liszt (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Martin Walser
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: Mid-June, the early 1980’s
- Setting: Southwestern Germany, near Lake Constance
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Self-discovery, Suicide, 1980’s, Letter writing, Business or business people, Germany or German people
- Locales: Germany, Lake Constance, Germany
Characters Discussed
Franz Horn, a middle-aged business executive in the Chemnitz Denture corporation. An ineffectual but highly conscientious bureaucrat, he is in charge of the company’s personnel, taxes, and properties. He possesses a photographic memory, in which he documents the alcoholic shortcomings of his most serious rival, Liszt. Most of the novel consists of a letter—with nineteen postscripts—to Liszt, in which he reveals his authentic feelings of disgust toward him. A lonely and suicidal but highly sensitive man, Horn had planned to abandon the company and join...
[The entire page is 883 words long]
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