''The Last World'' () is a 1988 novel by the Austrian writer

Christoph Ransmayr Christoph Ransmayr (; born 20 March 1954) is an Austrian writer. Life Born in Wels, Upper Austria, Ransmayr grew up in Roitham near Gmunden and the Traunsee. From 1972 to 1978 he studied philosophy and ethnology in Vienna. He worked there as ...

. Set in an inconsistent time period, it tells the story of a man, Cotta, who travels to Tomi to search for the poet Naso, who had settled there in political exile, after hearing rumours that Naso has died. In the town, Cotta encounters a number of characters from Ovid's ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...

''. ''The Last World'' was published in English in 1990, translated by John E. Woods.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' called the book an "ambitious, stylish historical work". Robert Irwin wrote in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'': "This remarkable second novel by Christoph Ransmayr, a young Austrian novelist, carries the conviction of an ominous dream". Irwin first compared it to the works of

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

painters, after which he wrote: "But the shape-shifting world in which Cotta conducts his quest owes more to Latin literature than to Surrealist theory. ... ''The Last World'', with its careful anachronisms and deformations, is a brilliant exercise in alternative literary history." Richard Eder of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' described the book as a "powerful allegory of rise, fall and change", and wrote:

There is nothing Olympian or didactic about Ransmayr's parable. It is told at extremes, in harsh images and bleak ellipses. It is strung along mysteries—Where is Ovid? Who are the townspeople whom Cotta encounters in Tomi?—and its tone is grotesque and frozen by turns.

Eder saw a flaw in how the townspeople of Tomi, unlike the characters in ''Metamorphoses'', fail to become touching to the reader, which makes the story "wooden". Eder wrote: "As a parable, nonetheless, it has a vivid and unsettling force." The English translation was awarded the 1991 Schlegel-Tieck Prize from the

Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. Membership of the society is open to "anyon ...

References

External links

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American publicity page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Last World 1988 Austrian novels German-language novels Novels by Christoph Ransmayr Novels set in Romania Cultural depictions of Ovid Works based on Metamorphoses