Canetti, Elias

Canetti, Elias (kənĕt`ē), 1905–94, English novelist and essayist, b. Ruschuk (now Ruse), Bulgaria. He came from a Sephardic Jewish background, spent most of his early years in Vienna, and, fleeing Nazism, emigrated to England in 1939 just before the outbreak of World War II. His most important works, all written in German, are the novel Auto-da-Fé (1935, tr. 1946), a searing picture of a man who is obsessive, degraded, and evil, and Crowds and Power (1960, tr. 1962), a study of mass psychology. He also wrote plays, autobiographical works, essays, and a study of Kafka. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981.

Bibliography

See his reminiscences: The Tongue Set Free (1977, tr. 1979), The Torch in My Ear (1980, tr. 1982), The Play of the Eyes (1985, tr. 1986), and the unfinished and posthumously published Party in the Blitz (2003, tr. 2005); his notebooks (1998); study by R. Lawson (1991).

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Canetti, Elias

Canetti

(credit: Horst Tappe/Camera Press/Globe Photos)

(born July 25, 1905, Ruse, Bulg.—died Aug. 14, 1994, Zürich, Switz.) Bulgarian-born British novelist and playwright. Canetti was from a Spanish-speaking Jewish family. His best-known work, the novel Auto-da-Fé (1935), deals with the dangers in believing that detached intellectualism can prevail over evil and chaos. He settled in Britain in 1938. Later works that reflect his interest in the psychopathology of power include Crowds and Power (1960); the plays The Wedding (1932), Comedy of Vanity (1950), and Life-Terms (1964); and his series of autobiographies beginning with The Tongue Set Free (1977). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981.