Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Bruno Schulz
- First Published: 1937
- Type of Plot: Fantasy
- Time of Work: 1937
- Setting: A mythical town, suggestive of the narrator's small Polish hometown
- Principal Characters: Joseph, Father, Dr. Gotard
- Genres: Short fiction, Fantasy
- Subjects: Parents and children, Guilt, War, Fathers, Fantasy, Nazism or Nazis, Life and death
- Locales: Poland
The Story
Joseph arrives by train in a small, strangely dark town to visit his father, who is staying at a hotel called the Sanatorium. From the beginning, however, the reality of everything is in question. The physical world itself is shaky, shifting, and fluid. The Sanatorium is run by Dr. Gotard, a difficult man to find. The only other visible member of the staff is a chambermaid, a hardly less elusive figure.
Joseph anxiously inquires whether his father is still alive. Dr. Gotard replies that from a certain perspective, his father is dead, and “This cannot be...
[The entire page is 1460 words long]
