Ernst Jünger was a German author whose work is characterized by a profound examination of the human experience in the face of modernity and war. His literary style is precise, often employing sharp, visual imagery to convey intense sensations and philosophical reflections. Jünger contemplated the impact of technology and materialism on the soul, frequently with an uncompromising yet deeply contemplative perspective. His writings, despite controversies, offer a unique lens on the nature of courage, survival, and the search for meaning amidst chaos.
Written in 1932, just before the fall of the Weimar Republic and on the eve of the Nazi accession to power, Ernst Junger's The Worker: Dominion and Form articulates a trenchant critique of bourgeois liberalism and seeks to identify the form characteristic of the modern age. Junger's analyses are inspired by a profound intuition of the movement of history.
Ernst Jünger's dream-like story Visit to Godenholm takes the reader on a strange journey to an island off an unknown Scandinavian coastline.
"Ernst Jeunger's Eumeswil is a post-apocalyptic novel that combines elements of dystopian science fiction with a sustained philosophical reflection on the predicament of the individual in the face of the intrusive powers of the state and technology. Set in an undated future, the novel follows the reflections of Martin Venator, a historian living in the city-state of Eumeswil, ruled by a dictator known as the Condor. Venator regards himself as an "anarch," a figure who quietly accommodates himself to life within a dictatorship while simultaneously pursuing a life of inward resistance. As an anarch, Venator is a figure without loyalty to anyone but himself, yet at the same time he must also take careful measures to maintain the security of his current situation and to provide a means for escape in the event the government is overthrown"--
Ernst Jünger, one of twentieth-century Germany's most important and controversial writers, faithfully kept a journal during the Second World War in occupied Paris, on the eastern front, and in Germany until its defeat--writings that are of major historical and literary significance. These wartime journals appear here in English for the first time.
Ernst Jünger's The Forest Passage explores the possibility of resistance: how the independent thinker can withstand and oppose the power of the omnipresent state. No matter how extensive the technologies of surveillance become, the forest can shelter the rebel, and the rebel can strike back against tyranny. Jünger's manifesto is a defense of freedom against the pressure to conform to political manipulation and artificial consensus. A response to the European experience under Nazism, Fascism, and Communism, The Forest Passage has lessons equally relevant for today, wherever an imposed uniformity threatens to stifle liberty.
"In Approaches, Ernst Jünger-decorated German officer of the two world wars, "conservative revolutionary," Hitler critic, and a prolific novelist-describes his experiences with drugs, ranging from youthful drinking bouts, through experiments with hashish and morphine, to mescaline, peyote and LSD. Taking his readers on a remarkable journey from beer to hallucinogen, he provides fascinating vignettes from key moments in Germany's troubled twentieth century. Approaches is also a fundamentally philosophical, even spiritual journey toward hidden dimensions of existence which, in Jünger's view, have been eclipsed by the ambient noise of modern life. The ecstatic altered states provided by drug use, he claims, can help us approach them and find a deeper truth"-- Provided by publisher
The memoir widely viewed as the best account ever written of fighting in WW1 A memoir of astonishing power, savagery, and ashen lyricism, Storm of Steel illuminates not only the horrors but also the fascination of total war, seen through the eyes of an ordinary German soldier. Young, tough, patriotic, but also disturbingly self-aware, Jünger exulted in the Great War, which he saw not just as a great national conflict but—more importantly—as a unique personal struggle. Leading raiding parties, defending trenches against murderous British incursions, simply enduring as shells tore his comrades apart, Jünger kept testing himself, braced for the death that will mark his failure. Published shortly after the war’s end, Storm of Steel was a worldwide bestseller and can now be rediscovered through Michael Hofmann’s brilliant new translation. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Set against the backdrop of the Second World War, this work reflects Ernst Jünger's vision for Europe's future amidst turmoil and devastation. It serves not only as a historical document but also as a profound statement of hope and principle, showcasing Jünger's insights as a significant thinker of the 20th century. His exploration of the challenges facing Western Civilization offers a thoughtful perspective on resilience and the potential for renewal after years of conflict.
A complete English translation of the correspondence between the philosopher Martin Heidegger and the novelist and essayist Ernst Jünger, together with a translation of Jünger's essay Across the Line.
Written and published in 1934, a year after Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Ernst Jünger's On Pain is an astonishing essay that announces the rise of a new metaphysics of pain in a totalitarian age. One of the most controversial authors of twentieth-century Germany, Jünger rejects the liberal values of liberty, security, ease, and comfort, and seeks instead the measure of man in the capacity to withstand pain and sacrifice. Jünger heralds the rise of a breed of men who--equipped with an unmatched ability to treat themselves and others in a cold and detached way--become one with new, terrorizing machines of death and destruction in human-guided torpedoes and manned airborne missiles, and whose "peculiarly cruel way of seeing," resembling the insensitive lens of a camera, anticipates the horrors of World War II. With a preface by Russell A. Berman, and an introduction by translator David C. Durst, this remarkable essay not only provides valuable insights into the cult of courage and death in Nazi Germany, but also throws light on the ideology of terrorism today.<