After Nature
After Nature was W.G. Sebald's first major literary work, originally published in German in 1988 and later translated by Michael Hamburger. It is a long poem in three sections. The first follows the painter Matthias Grunewald, the second the naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, who joined Bering's expedition to Alaska, and the third an autobiographical voice tracing the author's German childhood and adult wanderings. The pieces speak to one another across centuries, returning to themes that would mark Sebald's later prose books, including loss, exile, the weight of European history, and the failure of nature and humanity to repair what they damage. Readers familiar with The Rings of Saturn or Austerlitz will recognize the same quiet, drifting intelligence here in earlier form.
What you might want to know about After Nature
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A book length poem in three parts that braids the lives of a Renaissance painter, an eighteenth century naturalist, and the author himself.
No, though readers of The Rings of Saturn or Austerlitz will recognize themes and tone here in earlier form.
Yes, it is structured as a book length poem in three parts, though it reads with the patience and sweep of his later prose.
After Nature was written by W.G. Sebald, published in 2003 by Penguin Books, Limited.
After Nature is 128 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, After Nature takes most readers 2 to 3 hours to finish.
After Nature is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.