![]() The Rings of Saturn is as enigmatic as ever. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn Walk Southwold to Dunwich (4K) Watch on A walk along the Suffolk coast from Southwold to Dunwich While on holiday in Southwold in August, I was determined to complete the walk from Southwold to ‘the lost city’ of Dunwich described in W.G. Having now re-read (many times) Sebald’s other enigmatic masterpieces, The Emigrants, and Vertigo, I have a better idea where he was coming from-but please don’t ask me to elucidate, as I wouldn’t do it justice. Sebald, I think, gives a hint as to what The Rings of Saturn is about in his opening paragraph: ‘the traces of destruction, reaching far back into the past, that were evident even in that remote place’. But, before you know it, our narrator has somehow segued into a section on Joseph Conrad, Roger Casement, the Emperor of China, Sir Thomas Browne, Chateaubriand, silkworms, some chap making a model of the Temple of Solomon, etc.-whatever the hell ‘etc.’ is supposed to mean when applied to seemingly random lists. It’s not clear if the book is autobiographical or it is a piece of fiction. ![]() A typical chapter begins with Sebald describing in beautiful prose the next desolate place on an East Anglian walking odyssey-they're all desolate. Book Review The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald kappleto2013 Book Reviews, Exhibitions & Books 2 Minutes This book is a translation from German in the form of a travel journal of a year long walk through the county of Suffolk. ![]() The Rings of Saturn is a strange and wonderful mix of travelogue, memoir, history, and fiction. ![]() ![]() It’s also a total enigma, being impossible to describe, but I suppose I ought to try. ![]()
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