Peter Schlemiel by Adelbert Chamisso (1814)

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

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

"Peter Schlemiel" by Adelbert Chamisso (1781 to 1838, born Klagenfurt, Austria-Hungaria), "Schleiel" is a Yiddish word referring to a person who is a hopeless screw up, is a very influential story.   Peter meets a mysterious man at a party, what ever anyone requests he can pull out of his pocket, he evens pulls out three magnificent horses.  The man, who is a minion of the devil if not the devil, offers Peter an endless purse of gold in exchange for his shadow.  Peter excepts but when people see he has no shadow he is shunned and repudiated by his fiancé.  He tries to hide his loss by going out at night ad on cloudy days mostly.  He finds a faithful servant and luxuriates in his endless supply of gold coins.

However, compressing a good bit, he meets up with the devil again, the devil says he will return his shadow in exchange for his soul.  Peter refuses and begins to explore the world in seven league boots.  To me this was the most interesting part of the story.  I will leave the end untold.

This story is important for its historical impact.  The author was a poet and botanist living in a time when one person could still hope to "know every thing" and you can see this in Peter's trips around the world, studying nature and cultures.

I read this story in Tales of the German Imagination, edited, introduced and translated by Peter Wortsman, a very good anthology.

Mel von ü

"The Lunatic" by Georg Heym (1913)

 

An Excellent Article from Weird Fiction on George Heym including a link to a translation of one of his short stories

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

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 

"The Lunatic" by Georg Heym (1887 to 1912, born in Lower Silesia, died from drowning while trying to save a friend who had fallen through the ice on a frozen lake) is an amazing look at the mind of a man just released from three or four years, he is not sure how long, of confinement in a mental asylum .  We are inside his mind as he walks free. He believes those who died in the asylum were ground into sausage and fed to the inmates.  He thinks of a guard he would love to put in the sausage grinder.  He was confined in the asylum after beating his wife, which he feels is a husband's right.  He is on a mission to take revenge on her.  As he walks the streets he either imagines he kills two children by bashing in their heads or he really does.  He imagines how wonderful it would be to mash the skull of an old man that passes by.

When he gets to his old house, the name on the door has been changed.  At first he thinks perhaps his wife moved then he feels she must be trying to hide from him.  He ends up breaking down the door. He sees a rat running wildly around the kitchen wall and he knows that must his wife trying to fool him. He kills the rat with a frying pan.  Now the story gets really really weird.  I won't spoil it for you but it really is a brilliant done realization of the mind of the lunatic. In one poignant moment on his walk he both feared and wished he would be sent back to the asylum.

I read "The Lunatic" in Tales of the German Imagination, selected, introduced and translated by Peter Wortsman.  I totally endorse this book.  

Heym wrote seven short stories but while living published only poetry.  His short stories were first published in 1913.  All are said to be about minds pushed to the edge.  "Dissection", which you can read online at the link I provided, is about a man who seems to wake up while being dissected and calmly observed the procedure.

Mel von ü

The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac (A Novella- 1832- A Component of the Human Comedy)

My Posts on Balzac

There are four central characters in The Vicar of Tours.  One is Abbé Birotteau, brother of the perfumer Cesar Birotteau, Canon Troubet, the land lady of a rooming house where the clerics reside, and the house maid.  There are a lot of conspiracies and scemes in the storyline which centers around small town church politics about who will advance in rank and who will get to live in the rooming house.

At the center of the plot is the landlady.  The narration suggests she is evil and malignant because she never fulfilled the ordained by nature role for a woman of wife and mother.  

As always there are a number of small gems in the story but overall The Vicar of Tours is for those reading the full Comedie Humanine.

I have now begun Two Brothers.

29/91

Mel u

"Twilight" by Stefan Zweig (1928?)

         Madame de Prie 1698 to 1727

My Posts on Stefan Zweig

My favorite works by Zweig are first "Mendel the Bibliophile", then Chess, and The Post Office Girl.  Today I am enthusiastically adding "Twilight" to this list.

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

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

One of my goals for GL IV was to read a number of short stories by Stefan Zweig in the Pushkin Press edition of The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig.  So far this month I have read six of his short stories.   Zweig was a highly regarded history, his biography of Marie Antoinette was a best seller.  Zweig has rightly been praised for the acuity of his portrayal of the pyches of women in turmoil.  

"Twilight" focuses on Madame de Prie (1698 to 1727), daughter of a finance minister of France and at one time mistress to King Louis XV.  She was highly influential in deciding royal appointments and arranged the marriage of the King to a dynastastically  appropriate Nobel woman. When she fell from favor with the King, she was sent into exhile on her estate.  She remained incredibly wealthy though inspite of her many pleas she was never allowed to return to the court.  The angst generated by this loss of power and adulation drove her to suicide by poison at 29.  Zweig gets the facts exactly right in his story but it probably took him longer than a few minutes on Wikepedia.

The greatness of this story lies in how Zweig lets us see how devastated Madame de Prie was by her fall.  She comes across as a throughly nasty, very self centered, unfeeling a cruel woman.  Zweig perfectly depicts the stages of her grief.  We see her try to be friends with servant girls, and become enraged when she discovers no one at court even mentions her.  She takes a young country man as a lover, when she is through with him he gives him a letter to present to a duke in Paris naming the young man to office.  The young man rushes to Paris not knowing there is no such person.   I am leaving out a lot of the wonderful details of the story.

The close of the story in which Zweig graphically describes her suicude by poison sent  chills through me.

Mel von ü

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"The Secrets of the Princess of Kagran" by Ingeborg Bachmann (1971)

 "The stranger smiled:  my people are older than all the peoples in the world and are scattered by the winds of time".  

German Literature Month November 2014 Year IV

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.

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

Ingeborg Bachmann (1923 to 1976, Austria) worked as a drama writer for Austrian radio stations for a long time but is best known for her poetry.  I read "The Secrets of the Princess of Kagran" in an anthology I really like, Tales of the German Imagination From Grimm to Bachmann, edited, introduced and beautifully translated by Peter Wortsman.  She is one of two women writers featured in the collection.  

Wortsman tells us that Bachmann was drawn to write this fairy tale like story upon the death of the poet Paul Celan, with whom she had a long on and off tumultuous relationship.  As the story opens the realm of Kagran, a mythical principality, has been overrun by barbarous invaders.  The only way the princess can save her position is to marry the leader of the invaders, an idea that repels her.  One of the most charming things about this story are is the historical place names created by Bachmann, it feels like a proto-history of the Austro-Hungarian region from five thousand years ago.  A mysterious man enters the story and the princess at once seems him as her savior and loves him.  He appears seemingly out of nowhere from a shadow world very remote from her current world.

The images are very striking and the story line is intriguing.  We have seen other stories from Germania about immediate fixation,sexual and otherwise, on a just met stranger whom you see as your redemmer, your savior to whom you owe unthinking allegiance. 

Mel von ü

"The Sandman" by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1816 to 1817)

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

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

Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (he changed his middle name in honor of Mozart-1776 to 1822, born Königsberg, Prussia) was a highly regarded music critic, composer, and a theater director but it his fantastic short works of fiction, often composed very rapidly that have brought him immortality.  Operas and ballets have been made from his stories.  Peter Wortsman in his brief bio on Hoffman tells us that Freud studied Hoffman's writings, especially "The Sandman" deeply.

The plot is complicated and narrated in an interesting sophisticated fashion.  The story starts out with a letter from Nathanael to the brother of his fiancé in which he relays dreams or visions he has had of The Sandman. The Sandman was a character in Germanic folklore said to come when childen sleep and take their eyes to feed to his own children.  He awakes, or maybe he kept dreaming.  He goes into his father's study where the father's lawyer is demonstrating an automaton.   The lawyer hears Nathanel and grabs fire tongs to remove his eyes.  Ok strange so far but this is just the start and it gets much stranger. 

I do not want to spoil the intriguing plot for first time readers. I read this in a very excellant anthology, Tales of the German Imagination, edited, introduced and translated by Peter Wortsman. My bio data on Hoffmann comes from there.

Older public domain translations of Hoffman's short fictions can be found at EBooks@Adelaide

https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/hoffmann/eta/

Mel von ü

"The Governess" by Stefan Zweig (1927)

A Story of the End of Innocence for two Young Girls

My Posts on Stefan Zweig

My favorite works by Zweig are first "Mendel the Bibliophile", then Chess, and The Post Office Girl

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

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

24.  "The Governess" by Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig is, among numerous other gifts, a wonderful story teller.  "The Governess" is an excellant, probably risqué for the time it was published, story about what happens when two near adolescent girls listen at a closed door when their governess talks to Otto.  It is a very insightful look at how being raised partially by servants impacts children's relationships to their parents.

The girls have noticed that their governess has been distracted, not her happy self as of late.  They wonder if she could be in love.  They are shocked when,listening through the door, they hear their governness ask Otto, "What will we do with the baby?".  The girls think it must mean she has a baby, but they reason how can that be as only married ladies like their mother can have a baby.  Soon they see adults as liers and deceivers.  They ease drop as their mother, with whom they don't seem very close, cruelly fire the governness, calling her a woman of low morals not fit to be around her daughters.

Their father became very hateful to the governness.  They had never before seen this side of him.  No one will give the girls the truth. Their own behavior changes, they become deceitful in small ways, untrusting of adults.

There is sense of expulsion from Eden, lost paradises, often false Utopias, in much of Zweig's work.

A decent enough story.

Mel von ü