Between 1942 and 1948, Elias Canetti kept a kind of psychological and moral breviary, jotting down thoughts, feelings, nightmares forced on him by war and exile. Having denied himself recourse to imaginative writing, and turning more and more to the mythography and sociology of Crowds and Power, this fiercely intelligent, self-fascinated man sought to understand … the nature of the political catastrophe and of his own marginal condition. He wrote down his meditations only for himself, "in order not to suffocate".

Naturally enough, the result [Aufzeichnungen 1942–1948 (The Human Province)] is rather a rag-bag. There is a sprinkling of witty maxims…. There are various somewhat Kafkaesque germs for future stories or plays…. Then there are lengthier notes, sketches of consequent argument, dealing mainly with the soul-rending effect of war and of the destruction of central European values on Elias Canetti the writer and the Jew….

Mr. Canetti wondered also about the continued...