DIARY OF A MAN IN DESPAIR

by Friedrich Percyval Reck-Malleczewen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 1970

Mr. Reck-Malleczewen was killed in Dachau in 1944. He was a Junker, a self-styled conservative politically, and a man about letters. He was not, as his translator claims, Kafka-Orwell-Dostoevski. This is his diary from 1936 on at discontinuous intervals in which he records the Gottedammerung -- ""the end of five centuries of rationalism"" as that ""so basically misbegotten"" ""forelocked gypsy type"" submerged his country in ""muck and sewage and blood."" As will be apparent, Reck-Malleczewen inveighs, indicts and apostrophizes in a thunderous manner but some of the material is interesting: on Spengler's greatness and small weaknesses; on the fall of Putzi Hanfstaengl; on that ""political burglary,"" the Austrian takeover; on the German mass psychosis; etc. etc. But one questions whether it is sufficiently profound or innovative to serve as anything but amplifying marginalia on a world beneath ashes.

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION