The Rings of Saturn

by Winfried Georg Sebald

English language

Published Dec. 12, 1999

ISBN:: 978-0-8112-1413-1

(14 reviews)

The Rings of Saturn (German: Die Ringe des Saturn: Eine englische Wallfahrt - An English Pilgrimage) is a 1995 novel by the German writer W. G. Sebald. Its first-person narrative arc is the account by a nameless narrator (who resembles the author in typical Sebaldian fashion) on a walking tour of Suffolk. In addition to describing the places he sees and people he encounters, including translator Michael Hamburger, Sebald discusses various episodes of history and literature, including the introduction of silkworm cultivation to Europe and the writings of Thomas Browne, which attach in some way to the larger text. The book was published in English in 1998.

2 editions

Fionnáin reviewed The rings of Saturn by Winfried Georg Sebald

Review of 'The rings of Saturn' on 'Import'

5 stars

The Rings of Saturn is so many things at once. Part travel documentation, part historical research, part novel, part ethereal stream-of-consciousness, and each part is executed superbly. The book ostensibly covers a short period of journey on-foot by Sebald in south-east England as he traces some of the history related to Thomas Browne, but it meanders and gets lost just as often as he does on the moors and plains of that area. The journey it takes us on is sublime. Each page is dripping with descriptions, sudden changes in course, and a type of exploratory and deeply engaged writing that is incomparable. This is my first time reading Sebald; I will be reading a lot more of him in future.

Andrew (andrewspink@mastadon.green) reviewed The Rings of Saturn by Winfried Georg Sebald

Review of 'The Rings of Saturn' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

What an extraordinary book! It is like going for a long.walk with a learned and garrulous friend who tells you all sorts of stories vaguely related, sometimes very vaguely related, to the landscape you are walking through. Every so often there are small passages in different languages and I was glad I was reading it in the ebook version so that I could easily look up the meaning. Reading it as an ebook was also handy for checking if things the garrulous friend relates were actually true. Mostly the unlikely facts are actually confirmed by Wikipedia but then every do often there is something which is just not possible and that makes you doubt everything. The photos also add to sense of it being a real walk (although a disadvantage of the ebook formatting is they are too small, a shame)x but I heard the other day that the route …