The Shingle Maker And Other Tales

"In the first story, an old shingle maker in late 19th century Silesia comes to terms with the state of his life, the death of his wife and his ill-treatment by the niece who has taken over his farm. The second story tells of a master ropemaker in late 19th century Germany who watches over the last hours of his wife who has fallen over the side of some stairs in suspicious circumstances. In the last story, a German Baroness catches her husband cheating on her with the governess, and this leads her to question the whole nature of her existence. It is set before, during and after World War one"--Publisher information.

Shiva Mukti is a hardworking and conscientious psychiatrist, who, in the inauspicious surroundings of St Mungo's - a central London hospital of more than average decrepitude - does his level best to staunch the flow of mental illness. But Mukti is not a happy man, beset by thwarted ambition and sexual frustration, he now finds himself in thrall to the more successful and urbane Dr Zack Busner, consultant psychiatrist at Heath Hospital, and an originator of the once modish Quantity Theory of Insanity. Why is it that Busner seems so intent on fostering a professional relationship with Mukti? Is it his way of putting his junior colleague in his place? Or is Busner - as Mukti begins to suspect - a member of a sinister cabal? And what about the schizophrenic patients Busner refers to Mukti for his opinion, are they merely sick people, or in fact human weapons in a bizarre psychological duel?

Four novellas/short stories translated from German into English for the first time. "The Twilight" An old woman decides to end it all, but not before telling a few home-truths to her husband. "The Last Child" Dead souls become angels that do the work of taking souls to and from the earth. But what happens when an angel is sent to retrieve the soul of his infant brother? Will he be able to do it? Will his mother stop him carrying off her last child like all the others? "The Tale of the Rustling" A fable of how the sounds of nature came into the world. "The Shadow" A man's matter-of-fact reaction to his wife's death triggers a series of rumours amongst his fellow villagers. Hermann Stehr (1864-1940) was a Silesian author of over thirty novels and novellas. He was awarded the Bauernfeld Prize (1910), the Fastenrath Prize (1919), the Schiller Prize (1919), the Rathenau Prize (1930), the Wartburg Rose (1932), the Goethe Medal for Art and Science (1932) and the Goethe Prize of Frankfurt-am-Main (1933), and appointed as a founding member of the Prussian Literary Academy (1926).

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Vols. 1-69 include more or less complete patent reports of the U. S. Patent Office for years 1825-1859. cf. Index to v. 1-120 of the Journal, p. [415]