The Death of Virgil

Hermann Broch (1886-1951) was an Austrian writer, playwright, philosopher, prose writer, and essayist. He shared the fate of many of his contemporaries - including fellow Austrians Franz Kafka and Robert Musil, who were overlooked by readers during their lifetimes but suddenly gained the status of great literary masters and true classics of the 20th century after their deaths. His novel "The Death of Virgil" (published in 1945) is perhaps the most significant of Hermann Broch's works. Like Joyce, Broch limits the time frame of the extended narrative to just a few hours - the last hours of the renowned Roman poet Virgil, during which the inflamed consciousness of the dying man reflects on the years lived and reevaluates his poetic achievements. In the dying Virgil's reflections on the pivotal era in which he lived, the author hints at a similarity to the time that befell his contemporaries in the first half of the 20th century.