Fatal Numbers
English world rights (Upper West Side Philosophers)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Jacqueline Chambon)
Since time immemorial man has developed ways of coping with the seemingly unpredictable vicissitudes of his existence. But the modern age was not content with the old incantations of the shamans and magicians. Which is why superstition and irrationality were replaced by probability, and people no longer spoke of fate but of chance.
Mathematicians developed models that were to be of assistance both for games of chance and more weighty predictions. »Probability theory« was the magic word designed not to control the unknown but at least to transfer it into formula.
In a manner that is both serious and amusing Hans Magnus Enzensberger follows the history of mathematical theories that seek to give us security and happiness: from Gauß’ normal distribution through to weather forecasts, from actuarial theory and forecasts of share performance through to the risk avoidance that has recently failed miserably on a global scale. In this instance, but also on adventure vacations and the mathematically calculable prospects of success in finding a partner, our luck is a precarious thing. And where the term of the infinite comes into play mathematics also have a tendency to become metaphysical. For Leibniz, God was the greatest of all mathematicians, and Kurt Gödel, one of the most important mathematicians of the 20th century even tried to use predicate logic to nail down the ontological proof of God conceived in the Middle Ages.
»Seemingly, classical theory has succeeded in exactly calculating the probability of outcomes in a game of dice or throw of the coin, but this depends on them being ideal coins and dice, such as do not exist in the real world, rather probability also underlies the law of large numbers. Only when the experiment is repeated a random number of times, is the calculated value attained. However, unfortunately, nobody sits at a gaming table for an infinitely long time given that human life is fairly short. «
»… a fine exploration of numbers and their nature, very highly recommended reading.« The Midwest Book Review
»… one of Germany's leading public intellectuals … Enzensberger is the most important postwar writer you have never read.« London Review of Books
»One of Germany's most revered poets and literary polymaths ...« The Observer
»To say that Enzensberger has reinvented the essay would hardly be an exaggeration; he has customised the form with a gusto verging on virtuosity.« The Independent
»Enzensberger cleverly helps us understand the fine line between fact and fiction when it comes to the movements in financial markets by revealing that economic fundamentals are of limited value: in the end, prices and market direction are determined by financial speculation.« Sanford L. Herzfeld, Director and Senior Vice President, David William Securities
»The title essay […] offers this highly insightful polymath meditating on probability […] Enzensberger then ranges forward to pondering the notion that ›whenever one is dealing with probabilities, there’s always a catch.‹ Gödel, Turing, and Benoit Mandelbrot come into the conversation as Enzensberger mulls over fractals and the frequency distribution of outlier figures such as Christ and Stalin […]. In the book’s second short essay, On the Metaphysical Antics of Mathematics, Enzensberger is similarly resourceful, invoking Robert Musil on the wonder of numbers. […] Enzensberger is a world-class writer and intellect« Carlin Romano, The Chronicle of Higher Education
»… a fine exploration of numbers and their nature,...
Persons
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Hans Magnus Enzensberger was born in Kaufbeuren in 1929. He died on November 24, 2022, aged 93, in Munich. As a poet, essayist, writer, biographer, editor and translator, he was one of the world’s most influential and internationally renowned German intellectuals.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger was born in Kaufbeuren in 1929. He died on November 24, 2022, aged 93, in Munich. As a poet, essayist, writer,...
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Light Poems
Babel
Babel! A word seemingly born from chaos in its alliterating, rolling urgency. The poet pulls several examples of how deception and self-deceit, misjudgements and failing routines determine...
Bengali rights (Parampara)
Windfalls
»How’s the confidence of the financial astrologers doing? What does the gibberish of the daily papers tell us? How much reality is contained in the mythical models of contemporary physics and cosmology? Towards which ultimate goal is our contemporaries’ pathological mobility drifting? What is the ubiquitous craze for abbreviations hiding? And down which garden path are the fine arts trying to...
Poems 1950-2020
For further information regarding the rights status of the poems in your territory please contact the respective Rights Manager >>
An Expert Review in 89 Numbers
Nature has treated people somewhat like a stepmother would. Other animals are stronger, can swim and fly better, give birth less awkwardly and do not need as much time to become adults. How can it be then that this weak creature came to be the strongest on earth? The answer, if you believe the author, has to do with the division of labour. Thanks to this trick every one of us, he believes,...
A Handful of Anecdotes
»It is hard to shake off one’s date of birth. M. drags his around with him, too.« The first twenty years of life are baggage that a person is forever stuck with. But...
Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Gallimard), Serbia (Laguna)
»Write down everything that is true«
The hitherto unpublished and unknown correspondence between Ingeborg Bachmann and Hans Magnus Enzensberger allows one to relive how, after the Second World War, two of the most prominent writers in the German language chose to depict and regard the world, literature and the publishing industry, but also how they wished to present and be regarded themselves.
One was...
Survival Artists
The 20th century was the heyday of writers who had survived state terror and purges with all the ethical and political ambivalences that this entailed. How did they manage to do that? Were they...
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Altamarea), France (Alma), Italy (Einaudi), Serbia (Laguna), Turkey (Iletisim)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Book Club rights (Büchergilde Gutenberg)
Money, Money, Money!
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Catalan rights (Edicions 62), France (Alma), Japan (Shobunsha)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)
Tumult
In 1963 the author took his first trip to Russia and unexpectedly became a guest at Khrushchev's dacha in Gagra. The result was a detailed portrait of the man and the Soviet »Thaw«...
English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Fonghong Books), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Todavia), France (Gallimard), Denmark (Gyldendal), Croatia (Disput), Greece (Hestia)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Malpaso), Italy (Einaudi)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag), German Entire Radio Reading (HR), German Book Club (Büchergilde Gutenberg)
Gone!
Mr Zed's Reflections
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Alma)
Domestic Rights Sales:German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag), German Radio Play (Hessischer Rundfunk)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)
Panopticon
In his new book, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, the master of the political and literary essay, discloses information about matters big and small, daily and commonplace themes, astounding his readers...
English world rights (Seagull), France (Alma)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Malpaso), Italy (Einaudi), Korea (Orot)
Brussel, the Gentle Monster or the Disenfranchisement of Europe
Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Fonghong Books), France (Gallimard),
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Catalan rights (Arcadia), Portuguese rights (Relogio d'Agua), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Cossee), Denmark (Hovedland), Sweden (Karneval), Norway (Valdisholm), Croatia (Meandarmedia), Greece (Nefeli)
My Favourite Flops, Followed by a Wealth of Ideas
Russia (selection; Obedinennoe)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Seagull), Spanish rights Latin America (Capital Intelectual), Italy (Einaudi)
Album
»This is not a diary«, as it states at the very beginning of the book.
So what is it then? A jumble, a jotter, a...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Seagull), Italy (Einaudi)
Skirmishes and Scholia
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Denmark (Gyldendal)
»for means of brutal communication«
In 1959, just after Uwe Johnson’s relocation to West berlin and the publication of his debut novel Speculations About Jakob, the correspondence and friendship between Johnson and Hans Magnus Enzensberger commences. Over the course of eight years they communicate about the situation of literature and politics and discuss the scopes of political activism. At the same time,...
Hammerstein or Idiosyncrasy
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Fonghong Books), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), France (Gallimard)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Cossée), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Norstedts), Norway (Press), Japan (Shobunsha), Poland (Swiat Ksiazki), Croatia (Disput), Serbia (Prometej), Turkey (Everest), Greece (Kastaniotis)
The Labyrinth of Intelligence
Spanish world rights (Anagrama)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi), Finland (Savukeidas), Estonia (Loomingu Raamatukogu)
Terror's Men
Spanish world rights (Anagrama, Latin American Sublicense: La Pagina), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Cossée)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Portuguese rights (Sudoeste Editora), France (Gallimard), Denmark (Gyldendal), Norway (Valdisholm), Finland (Savukeidas), Czech Republic (Pavel Mervart), Romania (ART)
Josefine and I
Spanish world rights (Anagrama)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Gallimard), Italy (Einaudi), Denmark (Hovedland), Poland (Wydawnictwo Literackie), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Romania (Universitara), Greece (Scripta)
Dialogues between the Immortals, the Living and the Dead
The famous philosopher Zhuangzi is having an argument with a man who has been dead for 500 years. Diderot receives an obtrusive reporter from the 20th century for an interview. An ageing...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)
A History of Clouds
English world rights (Seagull), Russia (selection; Obedinennoe), Serbia (selection; Akademska Knjiga), Greece (selection; Panoptikon)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Poesia Hidalgo), France (Vagabonde), Italy (Einaudi), Korea (Saemulgyul)
The Elixirs of Science
Spanisch world rights (Anagrama)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi), Poland (slowo / obraz terytoria)
Lighter than Air
»As well as being Germany's most important poet, Hans Magnus Enzensberger is a provocative cultural essayist and one of Europe's leading political thinkers. […]...
Serbia (selection; Akademska Knjiga), Greece (selection; Panoptikon)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: USA (Sheep Meadow Press), UK (Bloodaxe), Spanish world rights (Poesia Hidalgo), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Uitgeverij P)
Zig Zag
Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Gallimard)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (New Press), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Imago), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Geelmuyden), Hungary (Helikon), Greece (Scripta Publishing)
Kiosk
The kiosk around the corner – outside, it has a lot on offer. Inside, in the semi-darkness, sits a man or a woman, but what they are thinking is a different story altogether. In the...
Russia (selection; Obedinennoe), Serbia (selection; Akademska Knjiga), Greece (selection; Panoptikon)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Bloodaxe), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Uitgeverij P), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Norstedts), Israel (Hakkibutz Hameuchad)
Civil Wars
»In Civil Wars, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Germany’s most astute literary and political critic, chronicles the global changes taking place as the result of evolving notions of...
English world rights (New Press), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Gallimard)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia Das Letras), Portuguese rights (Religio d'Agua), Arabic world rights (Naufal), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Norstedt & Söner), Norway (Cappelendam), Japan (Shobunsha), Croatia (Durieux), Turkey (Iletisim)
The Great Migration
English world rights (New Press), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Gallimard)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), Arabic world rights (Naufal), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Denmark (Gyldendal), Norway (Cappelen Damm), Japan (Shobunsha)
Zukunftsmusik
Russia (selection; Obedinennoe), Serbia (selection; Akademska Knjiga), Greece (selection; Panoptikon)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Visor), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Denmark (Hovedland)
Mediocrity & Delusion
English world rights (Verso), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Gallimard), Denmark (Gyldendal), Japan (Shobunsha)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Brazilian Portuguese rights (Atica), Italy (Garzanti), Greece (Scripta)
Europe, Europe
»In this highly acclaimed and entertaining book, already »among the touchstones of the new travel writing« (Newsweek), one of [...] Germany’s leading...
Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Gallimard), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Norstedts), Norway (Universitetsforlaget)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Pantheon), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), Italy (Garzanti), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Japan (Shobunsha), Hungary (Europa), Turkey (Metis)
Political Crumbs
»How many more times do I have to tell you: There is no art without pleasure«, Enzensberger once claimed in one of his poems. That is a maxim he acts on in this book as...
Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Verso)
Mausoleum
The thirty-seven ballads deal with the contraditictions of »progress«, with a process, therefore, that has been going on for centuries, whose tragic and comedic, awe-inspiring and absurd...
Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Italy (Einaudi), Japan (Shobunsha), Poland (Prokop), Czech Republic (Dybbuk)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Urizen), Portuguese rights (Cotovia), France (Gallimard), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Norstedt & Söner), Finland (Ntamo)
The Sinking of the Titanic
A comdey. A comedy? Enzensberger‘s play is an epic poem in thirty-three cantos about the story that is as gripping now as it was back then. The catastophe that happened in 1912 is documented and...
Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Russia (Ivan Limbakh), France (Gallimard), Italy (Einaudi), Denmark (Gyldendal), Japan (Shobunsha)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; UK sublicense: Carcanet), Catalan rights (Magnanim), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Sweden (Norstedt & Söner), Norway (Oktober), Korea (Nanam), Poland (Prokop), Czech Republic (Archa), Hungary (Europa), Bulgaria (Narodna Kultura), Estonia (Eesti Keele), Serbia (Prosveta), Turkey (Alfa), Israel (Sifriat Poalim)
Anarchy's Brief Summer
Northern Spain is the only part of Western Europe where anarchism played a significant role in political life of the twentieth century. Enjoying wide-ranging support among both the urban and rural...
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Catalan rights (Llevir), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), France (Gallimard), Italy (Feltrinelli), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Norstedt & Söner), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Japan (Shobunsha), Greece (Hestia)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Netherlands (Van Gennep), Korea (Shil Cheon), Croatia (V.B.Z.), Turkey (Ayrinti)
Particulars
The essays of this collection dispel the legend that thoughts had nothing to do with the world from whence they came. Enzensberger analyses a production process: the creation not of...
Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Japan (Shobunsha)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Seabury Press), France (Belles Lettres), Italy (Feltrinelli), Netherlands (De Arbeiderspers), Sweden (Bonniers), Finland (selection; Otava)
Politics and Crime
Enzensberger presents his attempts at revising the conception of justice and rights violations, of nation, sovereignty, obedience and betrayal. They are attempts at exposing the criminal element...
Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Gallimard), Japan (Shobunsha)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Portuguese rights (Livraria Morais), Italy (Bollati), Netherlands (Bruna & Zoons), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Norstedts), Norway (Pax)
Defence of Wolves
Russia (selection; Obedinennoe), Poland (selection; A5), Serbia (selection; Akademska Knjiga)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Poesia Hidalgo), France (Gallimard), Japan (Jimbun Shoin)