Discussing Hans Erich Nossack, W.G.Sebald writes this:
In an essay of 1961 where Nossack speaks of the influence on his literary work, he writes that after reading Stendhal he was anxious to express himself 'as plainly as possible, without well-crafted adjectives, high-flown images or bluff, more like someone writing a letter in almost everyday jargon'. [...] Nossack experiments with the prosaic genre of the report, the documentary account, the investigation, to make room for the historical contingency that breaks the mould of the culture of the novel.
W.G. Sebald, Campo Santo, Anthea Bell trans., 2005
Viva Stendhal.
