Nonsense and Happiness

Nonsense and Happiness
AuthorPeter Handke
Original titleAls das Wünschen noch geholfen hat
TranslatorMichael Roloff
LanguageGerman
PublisherSuhrkamp Verlag
Publication date
6 January 1974
Publication placeWest Germany
Published in English
1976
Pages128
ISBN978-3-518-36708-7

Nonsense and Happiness (German: Als das Wünschen noch geholfen hat, lit.'When Wishing Still Helped') is a 1974 book by the Austrian writer Peter Handke. It is a collection of poems, reviews and other previously published texts, including Handke's acceptance speech for the 1973 Georg Büchner Prize.[1][2][3][4] Michael Wood of The New York Review of Books described it as "a book of rambling meditative poems".[5] The German title appears in the opening of several tales from the Brothers Grimm, notably "The Frog Prince".[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Schulz-Ojala, Jan (31 December 2015). "Zum Jahreswechsel: Die Kraft des Wünschens: Es wird einmal". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 3 September 2025.
  2. ^ Marranca, Bonnie G. (1977). "Reviewed Works: The Ride across Lake Constance and Other Plays by Peter Handke, Michael Roloff, Carl Weber; Nonsense and Happiness by Peter Handke, Michael Roloff; Three by Peter Handke by Peter Handke, Ralph Manheim, Michael Roloff". Performing Arts Journal. 2 (1): 104–105. doi:10.2307/3244976.
  3. ^ Renner, Rolf G. (2023). Peter Handke: Narrative Worlds – Pictorial Orders. Berlin: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 74. doi:10.1007/978-3-476-05932-1. ISBN 978-3-476-05932-1.
  4. ^ Michel, Volker (1998). Verlustgeschichten. Peter Handkes Poetik der Erinnerung (in German). Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. p. 63. ISBN 9783826014116.
  5. ^ Wood, Michael (24 June 1977). "Play It Again, Franz". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 3 September 2025.