Customer Reviews (2)

A mystery with more at stake than whodunit...

I havent yet read a Durrenmatt book that wasn't brilliant essential reading--and this one is no exception.

Barlach is a Swiss police commissioner--shortly to be retired--recovering from an operation meant to delay his inevitably terminal cancer. By chance, he spots a photo in one of the magazines he's reading to pass the time of a notorious Nazi war criminal--a doctor who operated on his concentration camp victims without anesthesia.Barlach becomes convinced that this doctor--under an assumed identity--is running an expensive clinic for the wealthy right there in Berne. So--still confined to bed--Barlach investigates the only way he's able; by having himself transferred to the clinic as a patient under an assumed name.

What follows is strictly out of a Kafkaesque nightmare as Barlach confronts not only the horrifying truth past and present but the very essence of evil in the person of the doctor and his staff from hell.

The novel is very short (proving conclusively that author's with something important to say don't have to take 700 pages to say it) and there's really no doubt that the doctor is, indeed, the Nazi Barlach suspects. There is some suspense as to whether Barlach will escape--and, if so, how. But even this uncertainty evaporates when Durrenmatt telegraphs the ending with a single line about twenty-five pages from the conclusion.

The fact is, however, that Durrenmatt hasn't really intended to write either a whodunit or a suspense thriller. He has staged this little drama to bring together the forces of good and evil for an apocalyptic debate upon which the fate of man depends. Does he live for anything beyond himself? Does nihilism trump all values, all purpose in the end? Is life just a meaningless game in which only the losers play by the rules?

Durrenmatt doesn't answer these questions so much as put forth the most forceful and intelligent arguments for each position. In the final analysis, he leaves the final analysis to you, the reader--judge, executioner, and, alas, the condemned, too.

The Quarry, a.k.a., Suspicion (Der Verdacht)
Police chief inspector Baerlach has just undergone surgery when his friend and doctor, Hugentobler, thinks he recognizes one of his own colleagues on a LIFE Magazine picture about Dr. Neyle, a nazi doctor who practiced surgery without anaesthesia in the extermination camps. This Dr. Neyle could be now the eminent owner of a private clinic for wealthy people in Zurich, Switzerland. Baerlach asks his friend Hugentobler to transfer him in that clinic under a false name. How will Baerlach, who is too weak to leave his bed, be able to unmask the evil doctor ?

Friedrich Dürrenmatt, born in 1921 and died in 1990, is one of Switzerland's most important contemporary writers; in fact, he is perhaps the most important (and successful) German-language playwright....after world war II. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Der Richter und sein Henker is great for the student of Germ
The book has extensive footnotes, an extensive vocabulary and questions and exercises on every chapter.It is a well written detective novel by a world renown writer. The language is not too terribly difficult, depending on how precise you want to translate.Believe me, you will enjoy this book. It was made into a movie called, "The End of the Game", with Jon Voight, John Sutherland, Robert Shaw, Martin Ritt and Jacqueline Bisset.

A Great Read, Especially When Working on Your German
My German 4 AP class used this book as our second semester reader. It was great. It had an interesting plot, unlike most other texts I've read in a foreign language, and it wasn't too hard, so that with a little help from our teacher, we were able to figure out what was going on. I would highly reccomend this to any upper level German class, or someone who is jut looking for a good German book.

A thrilling departure
In Der Richter und Sein Henker, known in English as The Judge and his Executioner, Durrenmatt presents a classical mystery story with true literary elements and remarkable characters. The story focuses on a terminally ill police detective whose partner had been murdered.Over the course of a few days, the reader is allowed into the mind of a truly good man and his truly evil nemesis, and learns that life is not filled with direct justice.The good man can be the judge, but only evil can be the executioner.A rewarding ending, a well-written book, and an altogether stunning read.If you speak any German at all, you would do well to treat yourself to the original as opposed to the translations. Enjoy! ... Read more

Product Description
For 40 years, the Swiss writer, Friedrich Durrenmatt,committed his works to paper from his home which overlooked thebeautiful lake Neuchatel in Switzerland. After Drrenmatt's death in1991, Mario Botta began designing a museum which would be a monumentto the writer, housing his drawings, paintings and literaryartifacts. Skillfully built onto Drrenmatt's house, the CentreDurrenmatt is nearing completion and will be opened in autumn2000. Officially endorsed by the Centre, this publication documentsthe complete realization of the building, from its initial conceptionto the finished museum, using texts, drawings and plans from bothDurrenmatt and Botta. These are accompanied by expressive photographsby Thomas Flechtner. ... Read more

Product Description
Johann Mobius, the worlds greatest physicist, is locked away in a madhouse along with two other scientists. Why? Because he is haunted by recurring visions of King Solomon, and the other two are convinced they are Einstein and Newton. But are these three actually mad? Or are they playing a murdererous game with the world at stake? This darkly comic satire probes the cost of sanity among men of science and whether it is the mad who are the truly sane.

A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Anne Gee Byrd, Matthew Patrick Davis, Bruce Davison, John de Lancie, Matt Gaydos, Harry Groener, Christopher Guilmet, Melinda Page Hamilton, Gregory Itzin, Roma Maffia, Missy Yager ... Read more

Product Description
179 page hardcover book published by Alfred A. Knopfin 1965. ... Read more