![]() ![]() Leopold was about to be tried for crimes against humanity but conveniently, he died. Young children were worked to death producing rubber or disciplined by hacking off their limbs. Leopold claimed the Congo and its resources not just for Belgium, but as his own personal possession. Leopold’s monstrous greed also features in Austerlitz and it is a subject that understandably haunts the writer. We learn that Casement was a man of great ability and integrity who brought the appalling atrocities of Belgium’s King Leopold in the Congo to the notice of the world. I knew nothing about Casement except that he was hanged for treason during the World War I, trying to get arms for Irish Nationalists from Germany. ![]() It is not an easy book to read, having complex sentences and few paragraph breaks but as with Austerlitz, the writing evoked an irresistible melancholy I can only describe as beautiful.Īmong others, Sebald is prompted to write about the early life of writer, Joseph Conrad who encountered Sir Roger Casement in the Congo and believed him to be the only decent European in the country. Rings of Saturn is a record of the writer’s ramble around Norfolk and Suffolk and the stories of events and people that are connected to the places he visits. Although Sebald lived and worked in East Anglia, this book was written in German, his first language, as was his later book, Austerlitz. ![]()
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