born July 25, 1905, Ruse, Bulg.
died Aug. 14, 1994, Zürich, Switz.
Bulgarian-born British novelist and playwright.
Canetti was from a Spanish-speaking Jewish family. His best-known work, the novel Auto-da-Fé (1935), deals with the dangers in believing that detached intellectualism can prevail over evil and chaos. He settled in Britain in 1938. Later works that reflect his interest in the psychopathology of power include Crowds and Power (1960); the plays The Wedding (1932), Comedy of Vanity (1950), and Life-Terms (1964); and his series of autobiographies beginning with The Tongue Set Free (1977). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981.
Canetti
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