"Dearest Georg": Love, Literature, and Power in Dark Times: The Letters of Elias, Veza, and Georges Canetti, 1933-1948In 1934, Veza Taubner and Elias Canetti were married in Vienna. Elias describes the arrangement to his brother Georges as a “functional” marriage. Meanwhile, an intense intellectual love affair develops between Veza and Georges, a young doctor suffering fromtuberculosis. Four years later, Veza and Elias flee Nazi-ruled Vienna to London, where they lead an impoverished and extremely complicated marital life in exile. Spanning the major part of Elias’s struggle for literary recognition, from 1933, before the publication of his novel, Auto-da-Fé, to 1959, when he finished his monumental Crowds and Power, the Canetti letters provide an intimate look at these formative years through the prism of a veritable love triangle: the newly married Elias has a string of lovers; his wife, Veza, is hopelessly in love with an idealized image of his youngest brother, Georges; and Georges is drawn to good looking men as well as to his motherly sister-in-law. Independently and often secretly, the couple communicates with Georges, who lives in Paris: Veza tells of Elias’s amorous escapades and bouts of madness, Elias complains about Veza’s poor nerves and depression. Each of them worries about Georges’s health–if she could, Veza would kiss away the germs. Georges is an infrequent correspondent, but he diligently stores away the letters from his brother and sister-in-law. In 2003, long after his death, they were accidentally discovered in a Paris basement and comprise not only a moving and insightful document, but real literature. |
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14 Crawford Street already Amersham Anna Anna Mahler anymore Arditti Auto-da-Fé Bauscherl beautiful Blendung Blitz brother Elias Canetti 14 Crawford charming coming course cousin Crawford Street London Crowds and Power dear Georg Dearest Georg doctor Downshire Hill Elias Canetti ELIAS TO GEORGES Elias's English everything fear feel France French Friedl Georges Canetti German give going Grinzing Hanuschek happy Hilaire hope Karl Kraus lecture letter live look Mama Marie-Louise von Motesiczky married Mathilde Memoirs months mother never nice Nissim novel Paris Peggy Perhaps person play Proust published Regine sanatorium sent soon stay Strasbourg Street London WI talk tell terribly there's things Thomas Mann thought told translation Veza Canetti VEZA TO GEORGES Veza's Vienna Viennese wait weeks wife wish word worried write at once wrote yesterday