First edition of works

Abysses of the bourgeois under a beautiful surface

Underestimated: Marlen Haushofer in the 1960s.(Bild: Manfred Haushofer)

Although the Steyr author Marlen Haushofer wrote world literature, she was underestimated for a long time. She always fought against the patriarchy with her literature. Now there is the first edition of her work, which weighs a whole 2.8 kilograms.

"Repressed war experience, militarism beneath the bourgeois surface, natural disasters of cosmic proportions," says Miryam Schellbach, editor at Claasen-Verlag, listing the themes that the Steyr-based author Marlen Haushofer (1929 to 1970) dealt with in her stories and novels. "As long as mankind exists, these themes will unfortunately remain topical." Haushofer's best-known title is "The Wall", which was made into a film by Julian Pölsler in 2012, with Martina Gedeck playing the lead role.

Each volume has a different editor
Haushofer, who always fought against the patriarchy with her literature, is now one of the Austrian classics of the 20th century, but until now has not had an edition of her work. Claasen-Verlag, which belongs to Ullstein, has now made up for this in cooperation with the StifterHaus in Linz. Each of the six volumes has a different editor, including well-known names such as Clemens J. Setz and Antje Ravik Strubel.

Children's books are missing
"Dreamers who are looking for stories that go beyond the confines of their own lives", says Schellbach, will be delighted with the 2.8 kilogram box, which contains five novels and a volume of short stories. Unfortunately, Haushofer's children's books are missing, although some of them have been reissued.