Read about my novel
Die Welt ist im Kopf=The World in the Head
(This text courtesy of Diogenes Rights Department)
The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer would be only too pleased to see philosophers and writers reacting to his ideas – to see Hegel giving up his throne, and the elderly Goethe paying tribute to him, a mere 30 year old. But publication of his groundbreaking work has been delayed.
And so Schopenhauer leaves Dresden for Italy in the late summer of 1818 without his book in his suitcase – he is still a nobody. Even before he arrives he attracts the attention of Metternich’s secret police: Goethe’s note recommending him to Lord Byron – a man with a wide reputation as a poet and as a figure of scandal – casts suspicion on Schopenhauer and makes him unwelcome in Austrian-occupied Veneto.
But once he gets to Venice, Schopenhauer refuses to be driven out – and certainly not after he meets Teresa. For Teresa shows the young philosopher that he still needs to rethink one point in his world view: his idea of love.
The first votes are in: Booksellers‹ praise for »Die Welt ist im Kopf«
»an amazing debut«
»one of the literary highlights this year«
»I never thought that this topic could fascinate me so much. A gripping novel with an insight into the 19. century«
»Schopenhauer, Lord Byron, Goethe, Brockhaus, Metternich – truely honorable names appear in this book. And all are presented as strong individual characters.«
»Christoph Poschenrieder tells lively and poignant – his language is beautifully chosen.«
»one of the smartest books this spring«
… and here’s a first batch of press reviews:
»The World in the Head truly deserves to be called a passionate debut. Christoph Poschenrieder not only shows a remarkable feel for language but also a sense for irony and joy in his story-telling.«
buchjournal»With an intuitive sense of the past, Christoph Poschenrieder succeeds not only in portraying Schopenhauer in love but also depicts a lively panorama of an era torn between Restoration and the desire for freedom.«
Magazin In München»Christoph Poschenrieder’s debut negotiates the delicate line between historical fact and literary fiction, and does so in a convincing and gripping manner. His debut is an inspiring journey through philosophy and art.«
Ostthüringer Zeitung»As well as simply a splendid portrait of an exciting epoch, this novel delivers a refined love story replete with secret agents, the Venetian Carnival, and a dog. Whosoever is ready to cast aside clichés of Schopenhauer the philosopher as misogynist and pessimist, will glean much pleasure from this intelligent book.«
literaturkurier.de»Poschenrieder has succeeded in breathing life into a potentially unwieldy subject.«
Rheinische Post»The charm of this book lies in the author’s ability to be inspired by Schopenhauer’s real life and to make the bare facts pulsate with life – he makes the reader curious to re-discover one of the great minds of German philosophy. No mean feat: a startling debut novel.«
Augsburger Allgemeine»Poschenrieder’s sensitive and lively imagination draws us into a torrent of poetry and truth, a whirlpool of quotes, allusions, and events that create a panoramic view of the time with a twist of the grotesque. A wonderfully intelligent, exciting, masterfully composed book, one that is a sensual delight to read. A flawless good read for the initiated.«
Landshuter Zeitung»Never have we experienced the presumed pessimist in this light. Here is an unexpected Schopenhauer, a world away from the pessimistic, bad-tempered cliché. Poschenrieder describes it all from a delicately ironic slant in incredibly finely crafted language that brings a vivacity and relish to the historical facts.«
hr-online
And »New Books in German« says:
»This wonderfully sensitive and lively novel centres on the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s first journey to Italy in 1819 at the age of thirty one, having just completed his magnum opus The World as Will and Representation. Both respectful and playful at the same time, Poschenrieder makes the most of the exhilarating detail of the celebrated thinker’s life.«
About the Author
Christoph Poschenrieder, born in 1964 near Boston, Massachusetts, lives in Munich, Germany.
He studied at the Jesuits’ Hochschule für Philosophie in Munich, and wrote his thesis on Schopenhauer. He also attended the Columbia University Journalism School, New York City.
He has been working as a freelance journalist and documentary film maker since 1993; since 2001 he has also been writing instruction manuals for computer software. ›The World is in the Head‹ is his first novel.
He is already working on the next one.
The Publisher: Diogenes
Diogenes is Europe’s largest publisher purely dedicated to literary fiction.
Here’s more information on Diogenes (in English).