Wilhelm Raabe

"Wilhelm Raabe (1831-1910) is one of the major figures of 19th-century German Realist writing, acknowledged as an innovator both stylistically and thematically. But until now there has been little concentration on the international and postcolonial dimensions of Raabe's work - his literary critique of colonialism, his engagement with modernization and globalization, his involvement in 19th century German discourses about America, Africa and Asia, and the links between international and national issues in his writing. In Raabe International, contributions from many eminent critics address Raabe both as a writer on world affairs and as a subject himself for translation and comment outside of Germany."

The book is divided into three parts: an overview of Raabc's career, his problems with the public, and the early reception history that did so much to damage his reputation; thematic analyses that seek to release him from received opinions concerning the nature and quality of his oeuvre by exhibiting his versatility and polyperspectivism; and interpretations of individual works. Originally published in 1987. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} The Birdsong Papers, which appeared in 1896 as Die Akten des Vogelsangs, was Wilhelm Raabe’s next-to-last completed narrative. What might be called an anti-Bildungsroman, it is widely considered to be the work that secures Raabe’s place as a precursor of German modernist fiction writers. Its tone is critical of late-nineteenth-century society, both German and American, with its industrial expansion, urbanization, pursuit of wealth, and erosion of conventional values; but this critical tone also produces an uneasy tension for its narrator, Karl Krumhardt, a high-ranking bureaucrat with a stake in the stability of that society. It is against that social-critical background that Krumhardt’s Papers record a coming to terms with a subject – his longtime friend Velten Andres – whose life both fascinates and profoundly unsettles him. Velten is intelligent, imaginative, idealistic, and full of promise; but he cares nothing about his gifts, chooses self-imposed seclusion over conformity, and carries his individualism to what Jeffrey L. Sammons calls ‘a kind of spectacular irrelevance in the conduct of life’. With this translation of Die Akten des Vogelsangs, the first into English, a major work by one of the most respected German writers of the nineteenth century is made accessible to a new, international readership.

Wilhelm Raabe (1831-1910) is one of the major figures of 19th-century German Realist writing, acknowledged as an innovator both stylistically and thematically. But until now there has been little concentration on the international and postcolonial dimensions of Raabe's work - his literary critique of colonialism, his engagement with modernization and globalization, his involvement in 19th century German discourses about America, Africa and Asia, and the links between international and national issues in his writing. In Raabe International, contributions from many eminent critics address Raabe both as a writer on world affairs and as a subject himself for translation and comment outside of Germany.

Schaumann has married the daughter of Farmer Quakatz, who has spent much of his life under the cloud of an accusation and suspicion of murder. Kienbaum, a cattle dealer, was found dead and Quakatz was known to have had an altercation with him not long before. The case was taken up and dropped three times for lack of evidence, but [many] are convinced of Quakatz’s guilt and make his and his daughter’s life a misery. [Tubby]... defends Valentine Quakatz against her persecutors, assists her father, and on one occasion arrives in the nick of time to save them from violence at the hands of drunken farm servants. He marries Valentine and they live together in happiness and harmony... At the old man’s funeral [Tubby] finds a clue to the murder of Kienbaum. He follows it up and solves the mystery. The murder was committed on impulse by Störzer, the postman... But [Tubby] keeps his knowledge to himself... [until] after Störzer’s death...

The author examines the relationship between the narrator and the reader in Wilhelm Raabe's Im alten Eisen (1887) both as an aspect of narrative structure and as a reflection of social and cultural criticism. Using W. Iser's concept of the «implied reader», the interpretation progresses from an investigation of Raabe's actual readers to a Im alten Eisen is linked to its unusual synthesis of the fairy-tale and the novelistic genres and to its parody of the family-journal novels of E. Marlitt.