The Empusium review: ‘hooch and misogyny at a gentlemen’s …

Nov 1, 2024 · The titular Empusium is a Silesian “Guesthouse for Gentlemen” where Mieczysław Wojnicz, an engineering student reminiscent of Mann’s Hans Castorp, is undergoing treatment …

FAQs about The Empusium review: ‘hooch and misogyny at a gentlemen’s … Coupon?

What does the empusium say about women?

As in Mann’s novel, the gentlemen of The Empusium (a word-mash of “symposium” and the Greek shape-shifting goddess Empusa) discuss everything from “socialism to Europe to modern art”. Wojnicz notices, though, that like a strange tic, every conversation “eventually led to women”, namely their “social handicap” or their smaller brains. ...

How much is the empusium by Olga Tokarczuk?

The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk Fitzcarraldo Editions £12.99, 336 pages/Penguin $30, 320 pages Join our online book group on Facebook at FT Books Café and subscribe to our podcast Life and Art wherever you listen Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025. All rights reserved. ...

Is the empusium a parody of Mann's discourse?

By parodying Mann’s discourse, The Empusium seems designed to take The Magic Mountain down a peg or two. Though Wojnicz is a keen observer of the social dynamics that unfurl around him, he prefers to listen to the debates and rarely weighs in. ...

Is 'the empusium' a good book?

Even stone-cold sober, however, readers will find much to savor in this latest work by Nobel and Man Booker International Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk. But those in a dark and dreamy state of mind will best enjoy “The Empusium,” a mischievous fairy tale about transformation, emotion and ambiguity. ...

Is the empusium a bildungsroman?

She becomes an adult, a person of reason, and learns to live in the real world. The Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s latest novel, The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, is also a bildungsroman, following the education of a young man. ...

What is the empusium?

But The Empusium is rarely more than it appears and frequently much less. Nobel Prize for Literature winner Olga Tokarczuk has a new book The Empusium. Unlike The Book of Jacob, it’s more focused on dictating a salient political message than pushing the bounds of art or reality. ...