MAX FRISCH (1911-1991) was a Swiss playwright and novelist noted for his depictions of the moral dilemmas of 20th-century life and the problems of identity, responsibility, and political commitment. Another defining element in Frisch was an underlying scepticism as to the adequacy of language; in I'M NOT STILLER (1954), his protagonist cries out, "I have no language for my reality!" Frisch was honored with numerous awards and honorary doctoral degrees in Europe and the United States.
His play SANTA CRUZ (1947) established the central theme found throughout his subsequent works: the predicament of the complicated, skeptical individual in modern society. THE CHINESE WALL (1947) mixes literary and historical characters to explore the possibility that humanity might itself be eradicated by the atomic bomb. DON JUAN (1953), a reinterpretation of the legend of the famous lover of that name, examines the theme of the conflict between conjugal obligations and intellectual interests. In his powerful parable THE FIREBUGS (1958), arsonists insinuate themselves into the house of the weak-willed, complacent Biedermann, who allows them to destroy his home and his world rather than confront them; the success of the play established Frisch as a world-class dramatist. His later plays include ANDORRA (1961), with its theme of collective guilt, and BIOGRAPHY (1967), which deals with a scientist who is given the chance to live his life again, and finds himself unable to take any key decisions differently the second time round.
Although plays made up the bulk of his work, Frisch is best known today as a novelist. The protagonist in I'M NOT STILLER (1954) begins by pretending to be someone else, but in the course of a court hearing is forced to acknowledge his original identity as a Swiss sculptor. Combining elements of crime fiction with an authentic and direct diary-like narrative style, the novel was a commercial success and won for Frisch widespread recognition. Critics praised its carefully crafted structure and perspectives, as well as the way it managed to combine philosophical insight with autobiographical elements. HOMO FABER (1957), the most famous of Frisch's novels, concerns an engineer whose world view based on logic, probability, and technology is challenged by a series of incredible coincidences as his repressed past and chance occurrences come together to break up his severely rational ideology. His last novel, BLUEBEARD (1982), tells the story of a medical doctor who is accused of murdering his ex-wife.
NOVELS, PLAYS, ESSAYS (1989), consisting of excerpts of some of Frisch's most important novels, literary diaries, plays, speeches, and other prose texts, presents a survey and offers an introduction to his large literary oeuvre.
The following books are in PDF format unless otherwise noted:
== FICTION ==
* Bluebeard (Harcourt, 1983). Geoffrey Skelton, trans.
* Homo Faber (Penguin, 2006). Michael Bullock, trans. -- ePUB
* I'm Not Stiller (Vintage, 1958 / Harcourt, 1994) -- ePUB + PDF (by @pharmakate)
* Man in the Holocene (Harcourt, 1981). Geoffrey Skelton, trans. -- ePUB + PDF
* Montauk (Harcourt, 1976). Geoffrey Skelton, trans.
* Novels, Plays, Essays (Continuum, 1989). Rolf Kieser, ed.
== PLAYS ==
* Andorra (Hill & Wang, 1964). Michael Bullock, trans.
* Biography: A Game (Hill & Wang, 1969). Michael Bullock, trans.
* Chinese Wall, The (Hill & Wang, 1961). James Rosenberg, trans.
* Don Juan, or Love of Geometry [incl. in Novels, Plays, Essays]. M. Bullock, trans.
* Firebugs: A Play (Hill & Wang, 1963). Mordecai Gorelik, trans.
PLEASE HELP TO SEED! If you like these books and want others to have access to them, please help to seed for as long as you can. The more you seed, the longer the torrent will live, and the easier it will be for me to upload new content. Thank you!
