Reviews for Der Briefwechsel

The average rating for Der Briefwechsel based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-09-10 00:00:00 Jason Tardo I delved into these letters because a specific inquiry into Benjamin's relationship with Jewish mysticism and particularly the Kabbalah, and they delivered some tremendous keys for further inquiry, especially into Benjamin's writings on language and magic. The collection only covers the last third of the span of their friendship, as the rest has been mostly lost to fascism and history, so you have to do a lot of reading between the lines to discern the shape of their earlier conversations and debates. (I'm sure Scholem's Story of a Friendship would be helpful here; I haven't got to that yet.) Interested to keep reading books of letters going forward. Thinking of Spinoza, Nietzsche, ... any recommendations?

Review # 2 was written on 2011-08-04 00:00:00 Mark Hansen What starts out as the gnarly somewhat comic correspondence of these great minds, becomes a full fledged tragedy, gun in first act included, in its second half. The never accomplished/always talked about meeting between Scholem and Benjamin becomes the utopian meeting point for the political and theological, as well as a missing point of solace for both Benjamin, as he moves knowingly onto his annihilation, and for Scholem, as he watches knowingly the Jewish entity he so wished for acquiring features taken from its worst enemies.