Letters to Georges

The newly married Elias Canetti also has a string of lovers. His brother Georges is drawn to good-looking men as well as to his motherly sister-in-law. And Veza Canetti is hopelessly in love with young Georges. A veritable trio infernal, captured in a ‘novel in letters'.

In 1934 Veza Taubner and Elias Canetti marry in Austria. Elias describes it to his brother as a "functional" marriage. Meanwhile, an intense love affair develops between Veza and Georges, the young doctor suffering from tuberculosis. In 1938 Veza and Elias Canetti are expelled from their Vienna apartment and escape to London where they lead an impoverished and highly-complicated marital life in exile. Independently and often secretly, they communicate with Georges, who lives in Paris: Veza tells of Elias' amorous adventures and bouts of madness, Elias complains about Veza's poor nerves and depression. Each of them worries about Georges' health – if she could, Veza would even kiss away the microbes. Georges is a lazy correspondent, but he diligently stores away his brother's and sister-in-law's letters. Long after his death, in 2003, they are discovered in a Paris basement and found to comprise not only a moving document but real literature.