By Emeric Pressburger
Narrated by Mark Gatiss @Markgatiss
Published by Faber Editions https://www.faber.co.uk/ @FaberBooks
226 pages (7 hours 2 minutes) ISBN 9780571371068
Publication date 2 August 2022 (first published 1 January 1966)
I reviewed an audiobook version purchased from Audible UK https://www.audible.co.uk/ @audibleuk.
The Cover
A stylistically simple cover but one totally in keeping with the original date of publication.
The narration
My first impression was that the narration was a bit dull, more a case of being read rather than performed. However, as the story progressed it became clear that this understated approach was the best way of conveying the story rather than detracting from it. What I mean by this will become apparent if you read on.
My thoughts
An old book that has only just appeared on my radar. I first heard of it only a month ago from author Nick Triplow @nicktriplow who had just read it in preparation for an event. Along with fellow author Nick Quantrill @NickQuantrill, the two Nicks are the artistic brains behind Hull Noir @HullNoir which is now holding monthly events in the James Reckitt reading room at Hull’s Central Library. These events are free to attend or livestream and of course everyone is welcome. The event that Nick was preparing for was a joint project with Film Noir UK @FilmNoirUK, a discussion with historian Ian Christie and broadcaster Matthew Sweet on ‘The Creative Words of Powell and Pressburger’ followed by a showing of ‘Wanted for Murder’. The Glass Pearls featured prominently in a lively discussion. The audiobook opens with a foreword by the author Anthony Quinn, which is informative, insightful (and shouldn’t be skipped) reflecting much of what was discussed on the evening.
The plot for the novel is rather thin and certainly straightforward, it is the skill of the author that makes it a compelling and at times a challenging read. It manages to confuse your thoughts, feelings and emotions as you progress and many readers will feel uncomfortable during some passages.
The central character is Karl Braun a middle-aged German who is looking for lodgings in Pimlico, London. He is a slight, quiet, and unassuming man, who is polite and well mannered. Karl is currently working as a piano tuner, but he harbours a dark secret from his past.
As Karl settles into his new digs, he attracts interest. His rooming neighbours are fellow émigrés, who assume that he, like them, came to England to escape Nazi Germany. With these friends he is careful to give little away. He also draws the attention of two women, one of them wrongly assumes a future with Karl, whilst he falls for the other.
Karl is an avid newspaper reader and he is drawn to the reports of Nazi war crime trials. Karl had been hoping that the twenty-year statute of limitations would save him from his crimes of the past, but they have recently been lifted to twenty-five years. Can he manage to live a lie for another five years and escape justice?
Set in 1965, its descriptions of the shared accommodation in bed-sit land of London are perfect, from the shared bathrooms to the telephone in the hall (leave a penny if you make a call). This is a time when Britain was starting to recover from the privations of war but even then, some people still cling to their old ways and little fiddles. A fellow émigré can get concert tickets cheaply for Karl, the best seats, any concert, thanks to a little scam. Actions that once secured survival now prove difficult to relinquish.
The novel is essentially about Karl in the present, but with echoes of his past. We see Karl as a quiet, pleasant enough man of culture, who loves music and plays the violin, trying to make his way through life and be no trouble to anyone. When he starts to fall for a woman and takes her to classical concerts and restaurants the reader will probably start to warm to him. Here seems to be a thoroughly nice man. The reality is though that Karl is was a doctor and one who did experimental treatments on concentration camp inmates. A past that he is seemingly unrepentant about. The genius of Pressburger’s writing and story construction is that we can hold this dichotomy about Karl. It is truly disconcerting that a man we would consider to be an evil war criminal can also prompt some feeling of warmth to his current predicament, making it an unsettling read. We would like to believe we could recognise evil people, but they are often nondescript or banal, why shouldn’t they like culture, there really is no correlation. It is this contradiction that lifts Hannibal Lector into the top tier of fictional serial killers. What some will find truly astonishing is that Pressburger was a Hungarian Jew who was made stateless and fled to Britain in 1935, yet he is able to create such a nuanced character in Karl. In his film work he did portray some German characters as essentially decent, being at pains to differentiate between Nazis and normal Germans.
As the pressure builds on Karl, he becomes more erratic and his judgement starts to suffer. He becomes in the grip of paranoia, but in this case they really are out to get him!
The timing of writing the novel is interesting and could explain its comparative lack of success. Adolf Eichmann had been captured by Mossad in 1960 and tried and executed in 1962. This represented the last significant war crimes trial from World War II. It did bring about an increase in interest in hunting down Nazis but largely by this time many politicians just wanted to move on rather than tracking down old men who would be dead soon. Simon Wiesenthal was busy trying to find the last big target Josef Mengele in all the wrong places and Beata and Serge Klarsfeld would be tenacious in pursuit of Nazis for many years to come, but it essentially became a private activity. The late 1970s brough the ludicrous but entertaining Marathon Man and The Boys From Brazil but it is the satellite TV boom of the twenty-first century that has brought with it interest in World War II, so perhaps there will be more interest in the novel this time around. I certainly hope so because this is a work that deserves to be widely read.
I’m rarely convinced when lost classics are unearthed, but I found The Glass Pearls to be an unsettling masterpiece.
The Glass Pearls can be purchased direct from the publisher here
The author
Imre József Pressburger was born into a Jewish family in Austria-Hungary in 1902. He studied engineering at Prague and Stuttgart universities before moving to Weimar-era Berlin in 1926. There he fell on hard times and lived on the streets for a period before publishing his first short story in 1928. Two years later he started writing scripts for UFA, the dominant German studio of the time. With the rise of the Nazis in 1933, Pressburger lost his job in the purge or Jewish employees and fled to Paris. His mother and many other relatives subsequently died in the Holocaust. In 1935 he relocated to London, anglicising his name to Emeric and meeting the director Michael Powell. Starting in 1942 they shared credit for writing, producing and directing fourteen films under the banner of their production company, The Archers. Their classic films include The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes. In the early 1960’s he wrote two novels, Killing a Mouse on Sunday and The Glass Pearls. After a long period in the critical wilderness, Pressburger was made a fellow of Bafta in 1981 and of the BFI in 1983. Pressburger married twice and was survived by a daughter, Angela. He died in Suffolk in 1988.
Source: Publisher’s website
The narrator
Mark Gatiss (born 17 October 1966) is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock.
Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Gatiss has written three episodes for the 2005-revived BBC television series Doctor Who. His first, “The Unquiet Dead”, aired on 9 April 2005; the second, “The Idiot’s Lantern”, aired on 27 May 2006 as part of the second series. In addition, Gatiss was the narrator for the 2006 season of documentary series Doctor Who Confidential, additionally appearing as an on-screen presenter in the edition devoted to his episode. Gatiss did not contribute a script to the third series, but appeared in the episode “The Lazarus Experiment”, as Professor Lazarus. After his submitted script for the fourth series, involving Nazis and the British Museum, was replaced at the last minute with “The Fires of Pompeii”, he eventually returned to the programme in 2010, writing the (also World War II-themed) episode “Victory of the Daleks” for the fifth series, in which he also appears uncredited as the voice of “Danny Boy”. It has also been confirmed that Gatiss will be writing an episode for the 2011 season of Doctor Who, although details about the story are yet to be revealed.[19]
Gatiss wrote an episode of Sherlock, a modern day Sherlock Holmes series co-produced by him and Steven Moffat. The unaired pilot was shot in January 2009 and a full series was commissioned. This was aired in August 2010 and consisted of 3 episodes. Gatiss also starred in these as Holmes’ older brother Mycroft. A second series has been confirmed, but dates have yet to be decided, since both Gatiss and Moffatt have additional commitments.[20]
Gatiss also wrote and performed the comedy sketches The Web of Caves, The Kidnappers and The Pitch of Fear for the BBC’s “Doctor Who Night” in 1999 with Little Britain’s David Walliams, and played the Master in the Doctor Who Unbound play Sympathy for the Devil under the name “Sam Kisgart”, a pseudonym he later used for a column in Doctor Who Magazine. (The pseudonym is an anagram of “Mark Gatiss”, a nod to Anthony Ainley, who was sometimes credited under an anagram to conceal the Master’s identity from the viewers.) The pseudonym was used again in television listings magazines when he appeared in episode four of Psychoville, so as not to spoil his surprise appearance in advance.
In mainstream print, Gatiss is responsible for an acclaimed biography of the film director James Whale. His first non-Doctor Who novel, The Vesuvius Club, was published in 2004, for which he was nominated in the category of Best Newcomer in the 2006 British Book Awards. A follow up, The Devil in Amber, was released on 6 November 2006. It transports the main character, Lucifer Box, from the Edwardian era in the first book to the roaring Twenties/Thirties. A third and final Lucifer Box novel, Black Butterfly, was published on 3 November 2008 by Simon & Schuster.[21] In this the protagonist finds himself serving Queen Elizabeth II, in the Cold War era.
Gatiss also wrote, co-produced and appeared in Crooked House, a ghost story that was broadcast on BBC Four during Christmas 2008.
Source: Goodreads profile
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