Reviews and Comments

the biggest problem i have with the novel is it's three pronged approach: "three women in three different eras" are three different setups and three times the slow building of atmosphere you need to establish a gothic story. not interesting enough. all of them are solid stories for them self, no need to combine them. at least this time the whole is not more than the sum of it's parts. it is by no means not enganging, it is a very fine tale and the witches are mean -- as they have to be

so about half of my edition is the actual novel by Jacques, named Dr. Mabuse's last gamble (Dr. Mabuses letztes Spiel) and half part essays about the meaning and influence of the novels and foremost the movies about Dr. Mabuse.

the novel --written ten years after the first one-- is missing most of the expressionist style of 'The Gambler' but is interessting in its own rights. there is the musing about key roles in society, especially in times, when society is under pressure. and of course the mystery of the dr. himself, emanating evil in his half dead and mad condition.

there are interesting letters between Fritz Lang and Jacques, some statements of Lang about his films and the aformentioned essays.

from a very odd and specific murder setup to humanity on the verge of the next evolutionary step. it is a good and thoughtful scifi novel. although: the tech science is more sprinkled in because of the genre, it has more of a musing about the human potential. (but in a more grounded way than the superhumans from the sixties and seventies.)

a (very) cozy fantasy story about an odd couple reflecting and at last overcoming their personal issues. and it's spicy too

first of all: it's a very impressionistic description of a travel up the river Yangtze, not a travel guide. there are loose anecdotes and always a great sense of style and vivid telling in the phrases of the early twentieth century. but it is not a peek into china 1913 or less than you might think. you get a european traveller instead, not often reflecting but always amazed. and the less he thinks the better, cause all his thinking is some racist crap.

den text zu bewerten ist nicht leicht: als marxisitische kritik ist er, vor allem in seiner verständlichkeit, wichtig gegen die falschen allgemeinplätze über "wirtschaft" und "kapitalismus", die unseren mainstream ausmachen. und auch sein hoffnungsvoller grundton ist wichtig, auch wenn unsere aktuelle politikerfahrung meist widersprechen will. die eigene theorie kann die schrift dann aber nicht reflektieren oder wirklich aktualisieren. es bleibt aber eine schöne einführung in marxistisches denken.