In the German-speaking world, and in the whole of continental Europe, Thomas Bernhard … is generally accepted as one of the leading literary figures of his time, the author of a remarkable series of short stories, seven major novels and ten successful plays, yet in the English-speaking sphere, he is still practically unknown. One of his plays. Die Macht der Gewohnheit (The Force of Habit), has been translated, was briefly performed at the National Theatre in London in 1976, and proved a resounding failure. But apart from that, his name has hardly been mentioned.

And, admittedly, Bernhard is a strange and bewildering writer. His deep pessimism, the blackness of his humour, his predilection for a basically monologic form, both in the novel and the short story, and in the theatre, point to a kinship with Beckett; yet there are very profound differences between them as well. Bernhard is a wholly...