"The Little Berliner" - A Short Story by Robert Walser - 1914- translated from the German by Helen Watts - included in Selected Short Stories of Robert Walser

The Little Berliner" - A Short Story by Robert Walser - 1914- translated from the German by Helen Watts - included in Selected Short Stories of Robert Walser

"Since then I have slowly learned to grasp how everything is connected across space and time, the life of the Prussian writer Kleist with that of a Swiss author who claims to have worked as a clerk in a brewery in Thun, the echo of a pistol shot across the Wannsee with the view from a window of the Herisau asylum, Walser’s long walks with my own travels, dates of birth with dates of death, happiness with misfortune, natural history and the history of our industries, that of Heimat with that of exile. On all these paths Walser has been my constant companion. I only need to look up for a moment in my daily work to see him standing somewhere a little apart, the unmistakable figure of the solitary walker just pausing to take in the surroundings." William Sebald

 "The Little Berliner" by Robert Walser, is part of my Participation in German Literature III, hosted by Lizzy’s Literary Life 

https://lizzysiddal2.wordpress.com/2023/09/22/announcing-german-literature-month-xiii/

Born: April 15, 1878, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland

Died: December 25, 1956, Herisau, Switzerland

Robert Walser is for sure now on my read everything he wrote list. I was glad to see a preface by Susan Sontag, (say what you will but they do not come much smarter than Sontag) included with The Walk and Other Stories by Robert Walser.  

I have already done several posts on short stories by Walser. (You can read Sontag's essay and "Response to a Request" by downloading a sample of The Walk and Other Stories). There is great sadness and loneliness in the stories of Walser. There was a time when people compared Kafka to him, now it is the other way around. Sontag and W. C. Sebald both verify this. Sontag calls Walser "a kind, gentle tempered Beckett". Walser's stories seem to me about the struggle to keep the self  alive in a world where blind conformity is the norm. 

"The Little Berliner" is narrated by the 12 year old daughter of an affluent art dealer, she lives in a rich neighbourhood.  She is an only child.  Her parents are separated, she occasionally stays in Munich with her mother. She has her future all as the wife of a wealthy man mapped out. She does know there are many poor people in Berlin but this is very remote to her, 

I found "The Little Berliner" a delightful story.  

The Little Berliner - A Short Story by Robert Walser - 1914 - translated from German by Helen Watts

German Literature Month, November, 2019

Works so far read for German Literature Month, 2019

1. Allmen and The Pink Diamond by Martin Suter, 2011

2. The Marquise of O by Heinrich Von Kleist, 1808

3. Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada - 2014

4. Nightmare in Berlin by Hans Fallada - 1947

5. "The Little Berliner" by Robert Walser, 1914

"Walser’s virtues are those of the most mature, most civilized art. He is a truly wonderful, heartbreaking writer"'. Susan Sontag

"Since then I have slowly learned to grasp how everything is connected across space and time, the life of the Prussian writer Kleist with that of a Swiss author who claims to have worked as a clerk in a brewery in Thun, the echo of a pistol shot across the Wannsee with the view from a window of the Herisau asylum, Walser’s long walks with my own travels, dates of birth with dates of death, happiness with misfortune, natural history and the history of our industries, that of Heimat with that of exile. On all these paths Walser has been my constant companion. I only need to look up for a moment in my daily work to see him standing somewhere a little apart, the unmistakable figure of the solitary walker just pausing to take in the surroundings."  William Sebald

Mel first encountered the work of Robert Walser during German Literature Month in 2013, he followed up with posts on short stories in  2014 and in 2015 on his novel The Tanners.  We are returning to him this year through a very Walserian story, "The Little Berliner".

1878 to 1956 - Switzerland

"The Little Berliner" is narrated by a 12 year old girl from an affuent Berlin family.  The story really is enchanting, magic.  We see how the girl totally has the views of her class.  She knows her main destiny is to marry and have children.  

One very good way to get into Walser is through the Selected Stories collection pictured above.

Oleander Bousweau

"A Morning" - A Short Story by Robert Walser (1907, translated by Annette Wiesner)

Do you hate your job? Ever worked for a moronic petty tyrant or been surrounded by idiots?  Then "A Morning" is a story for you.

"A Morning" is the first story in a forthcoming collection of short works of fiction, many only one or two pages long, entitled Girlfriends, Ghosts and other Stories by Robert Walser to be published by The New York Review of books later this year.  I have been reading the work of Walser for about two years now.  His short stories, "Kleist in Thun" and "The Walk"  are high art.  It is said he was among Kafka's favorite writers.

Have you seen the newer version of the great Mel Brooks movie The Producer? Flash to the scene in the accounting office.   Any body who ever worked in an office doing work they hated with moronic overseerers will love this story.  Workers in back room operations and call centers for multinational corporations may cringe at Walser's description of Monday morning in a bank accounting office.

"There are mornings in cobbler’s workshops, mornings in streets and mornings in the mountains, which may well be the most beautiful thing in the world, but a bank morning gives us far more to consider. Let’s assume it’s Monday morning, surely the most morningish morning of the week, when the scent of Monday mornings is excellently disseminated in the bookkeeping departments of large banks.....The head of the department is a sack-fat man with a monstrous face on his trunk. The face presses itself directly onto the trunk without the help of a neck, is fiery red and appears to be constantly afloat. It’s ten minutes past eight, Hasler, the boss, scans the room with a few pointed glances to check if everyone is present. Two missing, and once again these are Helbling and Senn. At this crucial moment, the bookkeeper Senn, a haggard, thin man, shoots in, coughing and puffing. Hasler knows this cough; it’s simply a request for forgiveness."

Walser takes us through the agonizing slow day.  Our lead character looks at his watch at five minutes past eight and tells himself he will try not to look again until an hour has gone by.  We see the various annoying coworkers.  We hate the department head.  

This is a wonderful story.  I look forward to reading the full collection.

I was given a review copy of the book.

Mel u

The Tanners by Robert Walser (1907, translated by Susan Bernofsky)

I am grateful to Max ü for the provision of an Amazon Gift I used to acquire this book.

Lizzy's Literary Life


Beauty is a Sleeping Cat


German Literature Month V 

I am estatic to once again be able to Participate in German Literature Month, elegantly and lovingly hosted by Lizzi's Literary Live and Beauty is a Sleeping Cat. This is my fourth year as a participant.   On the host blogs you will find the particularities of the event but the basic idea is to read literature first written in German (translated or not) and share your thoughts.  I began accumulating works for the event soon after the event ended last year and I began reading for it in mid-September.  

German Literature IV Post Event Celebration. Copiously illustrated

Works Read for G L V So Far

1.  Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada. A brilliant recreation of life in Nazi Germany. 

2.  Ostend, Stefan Zweig, Joseph Roth and the Summer Before the End by Volker Weidermann. A fascinating social history 

3.  Buddenbrook Ths Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann.  Must reading 

4.  "The Governess" by Stefan Zweig

5.  Demian:  The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth by Herman Hesse.  Read the major works first.

     Robert Walser 1878 to 1956, born in Bern, Switzerland 

Last year during GL IV I posted on a novel by Robert Walser, Jacob Von Gunten and his reflections on The Idiot by Fyodor Doestoesky.  I was inspired to reread The Idiot by his piece and I think this reading did significantly deepen  my understanding of the book.  I also read after GL IV closed Walser's "Kleist in Thun", a work which simply stunned me with the depth of feeling and beauty in the work. If a short story can reach the category of "High Art", this does. Additionally I have read a few of his many other short stories.

Anyone who has maintained a book blog for years, posting almost daily for years,  will know what I mean when I say I am doing this post just to keep going on.  Tommorow I will be better, I hope.

The Tanners is about five members of a family, the Tanners, there are four brothers, one is in a mental hospital and barely mentioned and a sister,   There is little traditional plot.  The primary focus is on Simon and his various jobs.   Part of the focus of the work of Walser is on  reflections on the meaningless of of most jobs.  There is a long segment  in which Simon talks about his work as a copiest, a very common office job in the days before copy machines and laser printers which perfectly captures the dynamics of office work, with its petty routines and little kings.  Copiests had to be educated men but they were performing totally meaningless work.  I was reminded of Melville's great short story, "Bartleby the Scrivener" as well as Gogol's foundational story  "The Overcoat" while reading this segment.  Tiny Tim's father was also a copiest!

The Tanners covers numerous jobs and periods of unemployment of Simon and his romances.  Much space is also devoted to the life of the sister.  

Simon is set off from his brothers, one is a sucessful business man, one an established artist and one is locked in a mental hospital.  It was impossible for me drive from the forefront of my consciousness the thought that Walser would spend the last twenty five years of his life so confined.  

I am very glad to have read this book.  It comes with an essay by W. G. Sebald.

I have two collections of Walser short stories and will be reading them all eventually, I hope.  

The book feels as if came directly from Walser's stream of consciousness.  

It is often said that Robert Walser was the favorite writer of Franz Kafka.  

Mel ü

Selected Stories by Robert Walser with a Preface by Susan Sontag and an afterword by Christopher Middleton (2012, 208 pages)

Stories and Feulilltetons by Robert Walser - Written from 1907 to 1929 -Translated by Christopher Middleton and others.

My Posts on Robert Walser

"Kleist in Thun" and the near novella length "The Walk" belong in the category of high art, as defined by Susan Sontag in her still very important essay, "Notes on Camp".  They are sublime works literature of almost transhuman beauty.  They are both included in Selected Stories Robert Walser along with a number of other mostly brief works of fiction with a few feuilletons.  I have posted previously on six of his short stories and one of his four novels, Jacob von Gunten.  I do not wish to generalize about his short stories and the zietgeist behind it (you can read the excellant essay by Sontag by downloading ten Kindle sample edition) but simply urge all lovers of the sublime to buy this collection so you can read it many times.

I see Walser's stories as at least worthy to stand next to Melville's "Barnaby the Scrivner" and Kenzeburo Oe's "When He Himself Shall Call My Name" as great tales of the Preterite of the Earth.

Mel u

"The Walk" by Robert Walser (1917)

"Since then I have slowly learned to grasp how everything is connected across space and time, the life of the Prussian writer Kleist with that of a Swiss author who claims to have worked as a clerk in a brewery in Thun, the echo of a pistol shot across the Wannsee with the view from a window of the Herisau asylum, Walser’s long walks with my own travels, dates of birth with dates of death, happiness with misfortune, natural history and the history of our industries, that of Heimat with that of exile. On all these paths Walser has been my constant companion. I only need to look up for a moment in my daily work to see him standing somewhere a little apart, the unmistakable figure of the solitary walker just pausing to take in the surroundings."  William Sebald

German Literature Month November 2014 Year IV

Works I have so far read for German Literature Month 2014

1.   Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

2.   Gertrude by Hermann Hesse 

3.  "Diary of a School Boy" by Robert Walser (no post)

4.  Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

5.  Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig 1925

6.  Life Goes On by Hans Keilson

7.  Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson

8.  "The Wall" by Jurek Becker

9.  "Romeo" by Jurek Becker

10.   "The Invisible City" by Jurek Becker.

11.  Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard

12. "Dostoevsky's Idiot" by Robert Walser

13.  "French Newspapers" by Robert Wasler 

14.  Jakob the Lier by Jurek Becker

15.  The Trial by Franz Kafka 1915,

16.  "The Seamstress" by Rainer Maria Rilke  1894

17.  "The Experiement or the Victory of Children" by Unica Zürn 1950

18.  "The Star Above the Forest" by Stefan Zweig. 1924

19.  "Saint Cecilia or the Power of Music" by Heinrich von Kleist 1810

20.  Amok by Stefan Zweig 1923

21.  Concrete 1982

22.  "Kleist in Thun" by Robert Walser 1913

23.  "Incident at Lake Geneva" by Stefan Zweig (1924)

24.  "The Governess" by Stefan Zweig 1927

25.  "The Sandman" by E. T. A. Hoffmann 1817

26.  "The Secrets of the Princess of Kagran" by Ingeborg Bachmann 1971

27.  "Twilight" by Stefan Zweig 1928

28.   "The Lunatic" by Georg Heym 1913

29.    "Dissection" by Georg Heym 1913 - no post 

30.   "Blackbird" by Robert Musil

31.  "The Kiss" by Robert Walser 1914. - no post

32.  "The Suspect" by Jurek Becker. 1980,

33.  "A Favorite Family Story" by Jurek Becker 1982

34.  "Moonbeam Alley" by Stefan Zweig. 1928

35.  "Flower Days". By Robert Walser, 1911, no post.

36.  "Fantastic Night" by Stefan Zweig

37.   "The Walk" by Robert Walser. 1917

38.   The Flight Without End by Joseph Roth. No post.

When I attempted to post on Robert Walser's "Kleist in Thun" I found myself unable to do more than launch into a barely credible to those who have not experienced rhapsody on the story in which I said 

it belonged among the greatest of all art.  I now feel the same way about his longer work, "The Walk". 

Maybe in 2015 I will try to write a series of post on Walser, I have two of his collections of short stories.

William Sebald does a great job of explaining the wonder and power of Robert Walser in this article reprinted in The New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/le-promeneur-solitaire-w-g-sebald-on-robert-walser

                                Getting Ready for the closing Party for German Literature Month IV

                                                                      Hosted by Ruffington Bousweau

Mel von ü

"Kleist in Thun" by Robert Walser (1913, translated by Christopher Middleton)

 Posts on Robert Walser

"Kleist in Thun" by Robert Walser is as powerful a short story as I have yet read.  

Mel u

"He wants to abandon himself to the entire catastrophe of being a poet:  the best thing for me is to be destroyed as quickly as possible"

"Kleist wants a brutal war, to fight in a battle, to himself he seems a miserable superfluous person"

There are still several days left in German Literature Month IV.  Lots of time left to participate. There are already over a hundred posts, reading through them is much like a fine class in German literature at a top academy.

German Literature Month November 2014 Year IV

The schedule and guidelines for participation are on the event webpage.  Just reading the  posts of all the other participants is tremendously informative. There is an interesting contest or two and some prizes to be won.  One of the tasks participants are charged with is reading a work first published in 2014 and this collection qualifies.  

I am very happy to be once again participating in German Literature Month, hosted by Caroline of Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Lizzy of Lizzy's Literary Life.   Events like this are one of the great things about being part of the international book blog community.  I know there is a lot of work that goes into a month long event and I offer my thanks to Lizzy and Caroline

Works I have so far read for German Literature Month 2014

1.   Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

2.   Gertrude by Hermann Hesse 

3.  "Diary of a School Boy" by Robert Walser (no post)

4.  Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

5.  Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig 1925

6.  Life Goes On by Hans Keilson

7.  Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson

8.  "The Wall" by Jurek Becker

9.  "Romeo" by Jurek Becker

10.   "The Invisible City" by Jurek Becker.

11.  Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard

12. "Dostoevsky's Idiot" by Robert Walser

13.  "French Newspapers" by Robert Wasler 

14.  Jakob the Lier by Jurek Becker

15.  The Trial by Franz Kafka 1915,

16.  "The Seamstress" by Rainer Maria Rilke  1894

17.  "The Experiement or the Victory of Children" by Unica Zürn 1950

18.  "The Star Above the Forest" by Stefan Zweig. 1924

19.  "Saint Cecilia or the Power of Music" by Heinrich von Kleist 1810

20.  Amok by Stefan Zweig 1923

21.  Concrete 1982

22.  "Kleist in Thun" by Robert Walser 1913

"The last paragraph with its excruciating modulation seals an account of mental ruin as good as anything I know in literature". - Susan Sontag

I have read Robert Walser's "Kleist in Thun" five times.  I will continue to read it over and over for the rest of my life.  It is high art, in the Sontagian categories, fully on a par with Middleton, the dramas of Aesylcus, Proust, and "The Dead".  I accept this sounds hyperbolic but I do not think many who have read it deeply will disagree.

The story weaves in and out of the consciousness of Heinrich von Kleist, the narrator and the evident persona of Walser.  Kleist has gone in retreat to a small hotel on an island in the River Aare in Thun located in the canon of Bern in Zwitgerland to write, to have peace, to be alone, to think, to be Kleist.

I do not feel now inclined to say more about  "Kleist in Thun".  I will post a few images of the area and a one of Kleist.

I hope to read and post my experiences with at least two more works by Robert Walser for GL IV.

Mel von ü

Robert Walser - Two Feuilletons from 1925 - "Parisian Newspapers" and "Dostoevsky's Idiot"

From "Dostoevsky's Idiof" by Robert Walser 

My Posts on Robert Walser

German Literature Month November 2014 Year IV

The schedule and guidelines for participation are on the event webpage.  Just reading the  posts of all the other participants is tremendously informative. There is an interesting contest or two and some prizes to be won.  One of the tasks participants are charged with is reading a work first published in 2014 and this collection qualifies.  

I am very happy to be once again participating in German Literature Month, hosted by Caroline of Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Lizzy of Lizzy's Literary Life.   Events like this are one of the great things about being part of the international book blog community.  I know there is a lot of work that goes into a month long event and I offer my thanks to Lizzy and Caroline

Works I have so far read for German Literature Month 2014

1.   Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

2.   Gertrude by Hermann Hesse 

3.  "Diary of a School Boy" by Robert Walser (no post)

4.  Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

5.  Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig

6.  Life Goes On by Hans Keilson

7.  Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson

8.  "The Wall" by Jurek Becker

9.  "Romeo" by Jurek Becker

10.   "The Invisible City" by Jurek Becker.

11.  Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard

12. "Dostoevsky's Idiot" by Robert Walser

13.  "French Newspapers" by Robert Wasler 

Last year during German Literature Month in November 2013 I read and posted on a few of the unique short stories of Robert Walser (1878 to 1956, Switzerland).  I also read one of his four novels,  Jakob von Gunten.  Robert Walser wrote a large number feuilletons.  The term originally came from the name for a section of French newspaper that published short non-political personal essays, often with an element of fiction.  Joseph Roth was a master of the form.  The feuilletons of Walser blend into fiction because of the artfully dated persona of the narrators.  As far as I know the two works I will post on here can be read only in Selected Stories Robert Walser, with a preface by Susan Sontag. Both of these works are only about three pages and I read each three times.   Both were first published in 1925 and were translated by Thomss Walen and Carol Gehrig.

"Parisian Newspapers"

In "Parisian Newspapers" Walser, speaking it the first person, talks about how reading Paris newspapers has given him French mansions, beautiful sophisticated Parisian ladies and elegant food.  He has spent days in cheap cafés.  He knows he won't be there but he doesn't need to.  The works feels very improvisational, like a master riff jazz saxophone player.

"Doestoesky's Idiot"

"Doestoesky's Idiot" is Walser's reaction to reading the novel.  Walser almost had to identify strongly with the central character, Prince Mishkyn.  Walser knew he was far from a normal person.  He wants to know why he has not inherited millions.  He talks about the characters in The Idiot.  You can tell,he was deeply impacted by the book and the characters in the novel. In these lines you can see how he projects himself into the story and compares his world to the world of the novel.

I will be reading two more longer works by Wslser soon, "The Walk" and a story both Susan Sontag and W, G. Sebald greatly admired, "Kleist in Thun".

Please share your thoughts on Robert Walser with us.

Mel u

Jacob Von Gunten by Robert Walser (1909, translated and introduced by Christopher Middleton, 1965)

I

Robert Walser (1878 to 1956, Switzerland) is a unique author.  I have previously read and posted on a few of his short stories and you can find some background on him in those posts.  Susan Sontag said that the basic theme of Walser was a refusal of obedience and the consequences of trying to be autonomous in increasingly controlling societies. Jacob Von Gunten is the first novel by Walser I have read.  The talent and discernment behind this work transcends my ability to describe.  It basically is the first person narrative of a young man, Jacob Von Gunten, going to school to learn to be a servant.  The school appears to do nothing other than try to impart an attitude of slavish obedience in their students.  Combined with a description of school activities and his interactions with students and teachers we also are presented a journal of the thoughts of Jacob.  You must wonder what unshown traumas could have pushed a young man of evident high intelligence to wish to be a servant with his whole life dictated by others.  There is a great depth of irony in this work.  I think this would be an exellant class room work for high school and college students.

  Kafka was an avid reader of Walser and I think you will become one also if you give him a try. 

Mel u

"Response to a Request" by Robert Walser (1907) and "Walser's Voice" by Susan Sontag

From "Robert Walser Voice" by Susan Sontag

"The moral core of Walser's is the refusal of power, of domination."  Susan Sontag.

I am really glad I decided to once again participate in 

German Literature Month November 2013.  I thank Caroline and Lizzy for hosting this great reading event.

So far I have read and posted on these works, all but Kafka are new to me writers. 

The Tin Drum-by Gunther Grass

"The Judgement" by Franz Kafka

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque -very powerful war novel 

"A Letter from an Unknown Woman" by Stefan Zweig. 

The Death of the Adversary by Hans Klein - a work of genius

"The Job Application" by Robert Walser 

Chess Game by Stefan Zweig-I will read much more of his work

"The Battle of Sempach" by Robert Walser

I have also listed to podcasts of "Basta" and "Frau Wilkes" by Robert Walser

The March of Radetsky by Joseph Roth I hope to read all his work

Memoirs of an Anti-Semite by Gregor von Rezzori amazing work of art.

"Flypaper" by Robert Musil

"Mendel the Bibliophile" by Stefan Zweig - I totally love this story.

"The Dead are Silent" by Arthur Schnitzler an entertaining work from 1907

"There Will Be Action" by Heinrich Boll a very good short story by Nobel Prize Winner

German Literature Month is turning into a great voyage of discovery for me.  I am finding  one after the other new to me writer whose collected works I now want to read.  My reading is restricted to works available either online or as translated Kindle editions so that is what I mean when I say that.  Robert Walser is for sure now on my read everything he wrote list.  I was glad to see a preface by Susan Sontag, (say what you will  but they do not come much smarter than Sontag) included with The Walk and Other Stories by Robert Walser.  

I have already done several posts on short stories by Walser.  (You can read Sontag's essay and "Response to a Request" by downloading a sample of The Walk and Other Stories).  There is great sadness and loneliness in the stories of Walser.  There was a time when people compared Kafka to him, now it is the other way around.  Sontag and W. C. Sebald both verify this.  Sontag calls Walser "a kind, gentle tempered Beckett".  Walser's stories seem to me about the struggle to keep the self a life in a world where blind obedience is the norm.  By shrinking himself or his characters down to as little as possible he is saying "we can survive".  "Response to a Request"  (four pages) is a monologue by either an actor or a stage director. It starts out mild and closes on a mad scream.  The sheer violence and anger in this story overwhelmes us from the Walserian persona.  

This story was translated by Christopher Middleton who labored for many years to make Walser available in English.  

Robert Walser Two Short Story Podcasts "Basta" and "Frau Wilke"

"To be alone: icy, iron terror, foretaste of the grave, forerunner of unpitying death. Oh, whoever has been himself alone can never find another’s loneliness strange."  From Frau Wilke by Robert Walser

I am happy to be once again participating in German Literature Month.

.  In the link below you will find lots of great reading ideas.  Caroline and Lizzy's only real rule is the work must be originally written in German.

German Literature Month November 2013

The hosts are hoping this year to have an even balance of male to female authors as in prior years it had been very male author dominated. They have a schedule (but you are free to post on  any German work).  Here is the official announcement:

So far I have read and posted on these works, all but Kafka are new to me writers. 

The Tin Drum-by Gunther Grass

"The Judgement" by Franz Kafka

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque -very powerful war novel 

"A Letter from an Unknown Woman" by Stefan Zweig. 

The Death of the Adversary by Hans Klein - a work of genius

"The Job Application" by Robert Walser 

Chess Game by Stefan Zweig-I will read much more of his work

"The Battle of Sempach" by Robert Walser

I hope to read, among others

The Death of Virgil by Herman Broch

Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald

There are lots of decent places to listen to or download podcasts of short stories but only 

http://www.miettecast.com/ has the endorsement of The Reading Life.

Miette, whose work I have been following for years has exquisite literary taste and an incredible reading voice and style.  I was very happy to find, though not surprised, to find there were two podcasts of stories by Robert Walser.  (There are a number of other stories on her webpage that qualify for GL III)

My main purpose in this post is to let my readers and those participating in the event of Caroline and Lizzy know about this resource and to keep for myself a record of my encounters with the work of Robert Walser.  

"Basta" (1917) takes Miette six minutes to read.  Like the stories I have read it is about a man celebrating his ordinariness.  It is a marvelous story.  Now days people compare Walser to Kafka but there was a time when it was the other way around.  Cosmically it is easy to see this as mocking what many see as the near slavish will to obedience of the culture in which Walser lived.

"Frau Wilke" (reading time 12.5 minutes), translated by ChristopherbMiddleton, is a very beautiful poignant story centering on two very lonely people, Frau Wilke the land Lady of a rooming house and a poet,the narrator of the story who rents a room from her.  I listened to then read the story twice.  Frank O'Connor famously stated the short story at its best is about loneliness.   I know he probably never read Walser, but this story can stand with the best.