An Anthology Of German Novellas

This new collection, intended for the student and the interested general reader of German alike, includes both traditional examples, and those which fall outside the usual canon. The sixteen novellas in the volume have been carefully chosen on the bases of length, historical significance, popularity, and interest, and have been extensively glossed by the editor, who also provides an introduction to the history and theory of the genre. SIEGFRIED WEING is Professor of Modern Languages at the Virginia Military Institute. Contents: GEORG PHILLIP HARSDöRFFER - Die angenehme Straf JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE - Die schöne Krämerin LUDWIG TIECK - Der blonde Eckbert HEINRICH VON KLEIST - Das Erdbeben in Chili JOHANN PETER HEBEL - Unverhofftes Widersehen CLEMENS BRENTANO - Die Geschichte vom braven Kasperl und dem schönen Annerl ACHIM VON ARNIM - Der tolle Invalide auf dem Forte Ratonneau ANNETTE VON DROSTE-HüLSHOF - Die Judenbuche ADALBERT STIFTER - Bergkristall PAUL HEYSE - L'Arrabiata MARIE VON EBNER-ESCHENBACH - Krambambuli GERHART HAUPTMANN - Bahnwärter Thiel HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL - Das Erlebnis des Marschalls von Bassompierre GUSTAV MEYRINK - Der violette Tod GEORG HEYM - Das Schiff FRANZ KAFKA - Das Urteil

Theodor Storm: Immensee / Adelbert von Chamisso: Peter Schlemihl / Adalbert Stifter: Brigitta ---Theodor Storm (1817 - 88), poet and short-story writer, was born in Schleswig... As early as 1843 he had made himself known as a lyrical poet of the Romantic School, ...but he wrote nothing that excels, in depth and tenderness of feeling, the charming story of Immensee; and taking his work all in all, Storm still ranks today as a master of the short story in Ger-man literature, rich though it is in this form of prose-fiction. (C. W. Bell) --- Peter Schlemihl, one of the pleasantest fancies of the days when Germany delighted in romance, was first published in 1814. The story is a poet's whim. Later writings of Chamisso (1781-1838) proved him to be one of the best lyric poets of the romance school of his time, entirely German in his tone of thought. (Henry Morley) --- Brigitta is usually regarded as an early example of German realism and written by probably the most accomplished Austrian prose writer of the nineteenth century, Adalbert Stifter (1805 - 68)..., an illustration of Stifter's didactic con-cern with inner beauty in contrast to outward appearances... Stifter instructs us in more than inner beauty by demonstrating for us - perhaps unwittingly - that the preferred and positive values of the civilized world are always already informed by their antinomies. (Robert C. Holub in: Brigitta, or the Lesson of Realism)

“A valuable aid for students who want to improve their ability to read German as well as for those who would like an overview of short German fiction since the eighteenth century.” William E. Petig, Stanford University

Includes parts of six translated detective novels and novellas originally published between 1828 and 1909. Each story is preceded by a biographical sketch of the author, and a general introduction which covers the literary development of the genre and examines the critical history and the sociohistorical value of the German-language stories.

The novella, one of the most sophisticated genres of narrative literature, owes its development primarily to German belles lettres. In the present collection, Mr. Steinhauer has assembled a representative sampling that ranges from the Enlightenment to the postwar periods and reveals the scope and flexibility of this art form. Included are Wieland's Love and Friendship Tested, Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas, Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl, Hoffmann's Mademoiselle de Scudery, Keller's Clothes Make the Man, Meyer's Sufferings of a Boy, Mann's The Bajazzo, Fontane's Stine, Hauptmann's Heretic of Soana, Kafka's Hunger Artist, Schnitzler's Fraulein Else, and Bergengruen's Ordeal by Fire.

The novella was Schmidt's preferred form at the beginning of his writing career, and this volume collects the ten novellas he wrote between "Entymesis" (1949) and "Republica Intelligentsia" (1957). The settings range from ancient Greece to 21st-Century America, but all react to the stifling conservatism and cold prudery of Adenauer Germany. Bursting with intellectual and sexual energies, resuscitating the German language after two decades of Nazi subjugation, these novellas revolutionized German literature in the 1950s and retain their power to shock and delight forty years later. Schmidt has been called a "giant of the modernist tradition, an enormously important talent in the fictional line of cruel comedy that runs from Rabelais through Swift and Joyce" ("New York Review of Books"). This edition of his collected fiction should restore Schmidt to his rightful place at the forefront of 20th-century writing.

The novella, one of the most sophisticated genres of narrative literature, owes its development primarily to German belles lettres. In the present collection, Mr. Steinhauer has assembled a representative sampling that ranges from the Enlightenment to the postwar periods and reveals the scope and flexibility of this art form. Included are Wieland's Love and Friendship Tested, Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas, Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl, Hoffmann's Mademoiselle de Scudery, Keller's Clothes Make the Man, Meyer's Sufferings of a Boy, Mann's The Bajazzo, Fontane's Stine, Hauptmann's Heretic of Soana, Kafka's Hunger Artist, Schnitzler's Fraulein Else, and Bergengruen's Ordeal by Fire.

Ebner-Eschenbach, Heyse, Raabe, Storm, Meyer, and Hauptmann>