Canetti had to reach his seventies before he was accepted by a broader readership, as his significance had always warranted. The two memoirs "The Tongue Set Free" and "The Torch in My Ear" became bestsellers. The essayist Canetti still remains to be discovered. The present essay collection "The Conscience of Words" may provide some remedy, as it gathers works from the years 1962-1974 (including the speech for Hermann Broch's 50th birthday from November 1936). In it, Canetti engages with Kafka (following the publication of Kafka's letters to Felice Bauer), portrays an extremely vulnerable Karl Kraus (after the publication of the letters to Sidonie Nádhérny), and reflects on Büchner ("he changed my life like no other poet"). The preface of this volume provides information about e.