Walter Benjamin: The Storyteller

Verso, 2023, softcover, 240 pages, 12.9 x 19.7 cm

The Storyteller gathers for the first time the fiction of the legendary critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin, best known for his ground-breaking studies of culture and literature, including Illuminations, One-Way Street and The Arcades Project. His stories revel in the erotic tensions of city life, cross the threshold between rational and hallucinatory realms, celebrate the importance of games, and delve into the peculiar relationship between gambling and fortune-telling, and explore the themes that defined Benjamin. The novellas, fables, histories, aphorisms, parables and riddles in this collection are brought to life by the playful imagery of the modernist artist and Bauhaus figure Paul Klee.