Old Masters is Thomas Bernhard`s devilishly funny story about the friendship between two old men. For over thirty years Reger, a music critic, has sat on the same bench in front of a Tintoretto painting in a Viennese museum, thinking & railing against contemporary society, his fellow men, artists, the weather, even the state of public lavatories. His friend Atzbacher has been summoned to meet him, & through his eyes we learn more about Reger
- the tragic death of his wife, his thoughts of suicide &, eventually, the true purpose of their appointment. At once pessimistic & exuberant, rancorous & hilarious, Old Masters is a richly satirical portrait of culture, genius, nationhood, class, the value of art & the pretensions of humanity.