I have noticed that sometimes I frighten people; what they really fear is themselves.
They think it is I who scare them, but it is the dwarf within them, the ape-faced manlike being who sticks up his head from the depths of their souls.
P r Lagerkvist's richly philosophical novel The Dwarf is an exploration of individual and social identity.
The novel, set in a time when Italian towns feuded over the outcome of the last feud, centers on a social outcast, the court dwarf PIccoline.
From his special vantage point Piccoline comments on the court's prurience and on political intrigue as the town is gripped by a siege.
Gradually, Piccoline is drawn deeper and deeper into the conflict, and he inspires fear and hate around him as he grows to represent the fascination of the masses with violence.
About the Author: P r Lagerkvist, playwright, poet, essayist, and novelist, received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1951.
The Dwarf, long considered a masterpiece of modern literature, was first published in 1945.
Lagerkvist died in Sweden in 1974.
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Hill & Wang The dwarf, paperback/par lagerkvist
