After the worldwide success of his novel
Perfume(1985), Süskind chose to write his next work of fiction in the form of the traditional German novella, to which he adheres with the ironic zeal of a postmodern parodist. The “unheard-of event” characteristic of the novella is here occasioned by the sudden appearance of a common pigeon at the door of one Jonathan Noel, a fifty-something bank guard who lives in quiet seclusion in contemporary Paris. Noel has arranged his life to achieve a state of “vollkommener Ereignislosigkeit” (complete uneventfulness); He has the utmost concern to avoid disturbances of his perfectly static existence, which consists of living alone in a tiny rented room and going to work every day at a nearby bank. When, one day, the pigeon arrives at his door,…
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Citation: Adams, Jeffrey T.. "Die Taube". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 July 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16835, accessed 21 November 2024.]
