The Tatar desert

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The novel The Tatar Desert ( Il deserto dei Tartari ) by Dino Buzzati was published in 1940 and describes the life of the officer Giovanni Drogo in a secluded garrison fortress.

action

The action takes place in a remote fortress , the fictional Fortezza Bastiani , from which the border of an unspecified empire is observed. The protagonist Giovanni Drogo arrives at the fortress as a young officer full of hope, initially only with the intention of serving there for four months. Life in the fortress is very monotonous and characterized by the expectation of a possible attack by the Tatars , who, according to legend, live behind the desert. An attack would give the soldiers stationed in the fortress the opportunity to gain fame and honor. After four months, Drogo has got used to the routine of the service and remains. He now believes in the legend of the threatened attack by the Tatars himself.

While Drogo stands ready to fend off an attack and reap the associated fame, his friends and relatives in town live their lives. When finally, after decades of waiting, the Tatars march, Drogo falls ill with consumption and is brought out of the fortress. He dies lonely in a hostel.

background

According to the Italian blurb of the original edition, Buzzati had the idea for this novel during long night shifts in the editorial office, during which he became aware of the monotony of city life; he believed that all too often modern man postponed his real life in anticipation of great things that might never come - until it was too late. Even before the standard works of existentialism such as The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus , The Tatar Desert can be read in many ways as an existentialist commentary on human existence in modern times. The motif of ultimately fruitless and senseless waiting connects the novel with Franz Kafka's parable Before the Law .

translation

The German first edition was published in 1942 under the title “In the Forgotten Fort” by Zsolnay in Vienna (transl. By Richard Hoffmann).

filming

The novel was filmed in 1976 by Valerio Zurlini under his title The Tatar Desert . Jacques Perrin , Vittorio Gassman and Max von Sydow played the leading roles, and Ennio Morricone wrote the music .

German-language editions (selection)

  • The Tatar Desert: Roman , from the Italian by Percy Eckstein and Wendla Lipsius, Frankfurt / M., Berlin, Vienna: Ullstein 1977, ISBN 978-3-548-03362-4 ; Licensed edition of it Leipzig: Reclam 1982, Reclams Universal-Bibliothek; Vol. 914
  • The Tatar Desert: Roman , from the Italian by Stefan Oswald, Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 1995, 2nd edition, ISBN 978-3-608-95945-1 .
  • The Tatar Desert , translation from Italian by Percy Eckstein and Wendla Lipsius, adaptation by Julika Brandestini. With an afterword by Maike Albath , Berlin: AB - Die Andere Bibliothek 2012, ISBN 978-3-8477-0333-4 . The extra print of the original editions will be published in 2019, ISBN 978-3-8477-2027-0 .

See also

Web links