Old Masters: A Comedy

In this exuberantly satirical novel, the tutor Atzbacher has been summoned by his friend Reger to meet him in a Viennese museum. While Reger gazes at a Tintoretto portrait, Atzbacher–who fears Reger’s plans to kill himself–gives us a portrait of the musicologist: his wisdom, his devotion to his wife, and his love-hate relationship with
art. With characteristically acerbic wit, Bernhard exposes the pretensions and aspirations of humanity in a novel at once pessimistic and strangely exhilarating.

“Bernhard’s . . . most enjoyable novel.”–Robert Craft, New York Review of Books.

“Bernhard is one of the masters of contemporary European fiction.”–George Steiner