Canetti, Elias

(1905–94)

   Austrian writer. Canetti was born in Ruse, Bulgaria and grew up fluent in four languages - Ladino, Bulgarian, English and German. His literary output however is in German. He studied chemistry at the University of Vienna, but after graduation became a freelance writer. In 1939 he moved to England where, apart from periods in Switzerland, he lived for the rest of his life.

   He is the author of the novel Die Blendung (1935), translated as Auto da Fé (1946) which was originally intended as the first part of an eight volume ‘human comedy of madmen’. It deals with a scholarly recluse who is expelled from his library and who subsequently encounters the depths of society. In 1960 he produced what is generally considered to be his greatest work. Masse und Macht (1960), translated as Crowds and Power (1962) is a study in the roots of Fascism. In addition he wrote three plays, Hochzeit (‘The Numbered’, 1932), Komödie der Eitelkeit (‘The Deadlined’, 1950) and Die Befristeten (‘Life Terms’, 1956) as well as several volumes of essays. He also wrote a three volumed autobiography: Die Gerettete Zunge (‘The Tongue Set Free’, 1977), Die Fackel im Ohr (‘The Torch in My Ear’, 1980) and Das Augenspiel (‘The Play of the Eyes’, 1985). In 1981 Canetti was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.