Literature View All

By Nicholas BoyleGerman literature in all genres and from all historical periods has exerted an enormous influence on the history of western thought. From Martin Luther, Frederick Schiller, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, and Gunter Grass, Germany has produced an impressive number of great writers and great works. In German Literature: A Very Short Introduction, Nicholas Boyle illuminates the particular character and power of German literature and explores its impact on the larger cultural world. Boyle presents an engrossing tour of German literature from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, focusing especially on the last 250 years. He examines key themes like idealism, modernism, materialism, trauma and memory, showing how they have imbued the great German writers with such distinctive voices. Indeed, this brief introduction offers broad coverage of German literature, revealing the links between German literature and the German nation, examining the literary and philosophical responses of German writers to social, political, and economic change, and seeking out the connections between Germany's intellectual traditions and its often violent and tragic history.Paperback172 pagesOxford University Press, 20086.8 x 0.6 x 4.2 inchesISBN 9780199206599Literary Criticism

German Literature: A Very Short Introduction

Edited by Evan BatesTranslations of 8 masterpieces by writers who defined the modern German short story, including Arthur Schnitzler's "Lieutenant Gustl", Heinrich von Kleist's "Earthquake in Chile", as well as important works by Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, Gerhart Hauptmann, Rainer Maria Rilke, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Clemens Brentano.Paperback237 pagesDover Publications, 20035.3 x 0.6 x 8.4 inchesISBN 9780486432052Short Stories, Fiction

Great German Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)

Edited by Harry SteinhauerSpecially chosen for their power to evoke German life and culture, these short, simple readings include poems, stories, essays, and anecdotes. Featured authors include Goethe, Hesse, Heine, Schiller, and Hölderlin, in selections offering a variety of subject matter and gradual advancement in language skills. Paperback224 pagesText in English and GermanDover Publications, 20075.4 x 0.4 x 8.5 inchesISBN 9780486461793German Language Instruction, Short Story, Fiction

First German Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book [English/German]

By Franz KafkaTranslated by Stanley ApplebaumStudents of German language and literature will welcome this collection of 5 stories by one of the greatest modern writers.Included are "The Metamorphosis", "The Judgment", "In the Penal Colony", "A Country Doctor" and "A Report to an Academy". Original German texts accompanied by new, literal English translations on facing pages.Table of Contents for Best Short Stories: A Dual-Language Book:"The Judgment" ("Das Urteil"; better translation of title, "The Sentence"; written night of Sept. 22/23, 1912; first pub. in the annual magazine Arkadia, Leipzig, 1913; first book pub., Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig, 1916)"The Metamorphosis" ("Die Verwandlung"; alternate translation of title, "The Transformation"; written Nov. 17-Dec. 6, 1912; first pub. in the monthly Die weißen Blätter, Leipzig, Oct. 1915; first book pub., Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig, 1915)"In the Penal Colony" ("In der Strafkolonie"; written mid-Oct. 1914; first pub. As book, Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig, 1919)"A Country Doctor" ("Ein Landarzt"; written in the winter of 1916/1917, completed by the end of Feb. 1917; first pub. In the almanac Die neue Dichtung, Leipzig, 1918; first book pub. In collected vol. Ein Landarzt, Kurt Wolff Verlag, Munich and Leipzig, 1919)"A Report to an Academy" ("Ein Bericht für eine Akademie"; composition finished by Apr. 22, 1917; first pub. In the monthly Der Jude, Berlin and Vienna, Nov. 1917; first book pub. In collected vol. Ein Landarzt, Kurt Volff Verlg, Munkch and Leipzig, 1919) Paperback208 pagesText in German and EnglishDover Publications, 19975.5 x 0.5 x 8.8 inchesISBN 9780486295619German Language Instruction, Short Stories

Best Short Stories: A Dual-Language Book [English/German]

By Helen Chambers "[T]his well-researched study, which includes an extensive list of "works cited," is an important step in reevaluating a topic typically ignored in nineteenth-century German-language literature...and uses a solid methodological approach to do so."—Monatshefte "Students often bemoan the dearth of comic characters and plots in canonical German literature. Heroines, in particular, appear destined for death. A very different picture emerges, however, from Helen Chambers' new book...[The] study is an important contribution to nineteenth-century women's literature."—German Studies Review Nineteenth-century German literature is seldom seen as rich in humor and irony, and women's writing from that period is perhaps even less likely to be seen as possessing those qualities. Yet since comedy is bound to societal norms, and humor and irony are recognized weapons of the weak against authority, what this innovative study reveals should not be surprising: women writers found much to laugh at in a bourgeois age when social constraints, particularly on women, were tight. Helen Chambers analyzes prose fiction by leading female writers of the day who prominently employ humor and irony. Arguing that humor and irony involve cognitive and rational processes, she highlights the inadequacy of binary theories of gender that classify the female as emotional and the male as rational. Chambers focuses on nine women writers: Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Ida Hahn-Hahn, Ottilie Wildermuth, Helene Böhlau, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Ada Christen, Clara Viebig, Isolde Kurz, and Ricarda Huch. She uncovers a rich seam of unsuspected or forgotten variety, identifies fresh avenues of approach, and suggests a range of works that merit a place on university reading lists and attention in scholarly studies. Helen Chambers is Professor of German at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK. Hardcover232 pagesCamden House, 20076 x 0.7 x 9 inchesISBN 9781571133045Literary Criticism

Humor and Irony in Nineteenth-Century German Women's Writing: Studies in Prose Fiction, 1840-1900

Edited by Donald G. Daviau "The incisive presentation of the cultural climate of the time leads to a better understanding of the different developments that took place in Austria and Germany."—The German Quarterly"This remarkable work has to be considered a key tool for studies in Austrian literature."—Austrian InformationMajor Figures of Austrian Literature﻿: The purpose of this projected seven-volume series is to help make the major figures of Austrian literature from 1800 to the present accessible to an English-speaking audience. The introductions provide an overview of the cultural and political background of the age to furnish a broader context for the individual contributions. Bibliographies of primary and secondary texts enhance the value of the volumes as reference works.The fifteen essays cover the life and works of the major authors representing the generation who began their literary careers before Word War II, were driven into exile or into inner emigration during the years of annexation (1938-1945), and attained full prominence in the postwar period.Contents: Ingeborg Bachmann, Hermann Broch, Christine Busta, Paul Celan, Franz Theodor Csokor, Heimito von Doderer, Albert Paris Gütersloh, Fritz Hochwälder, Christine Lavant, Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Robert Musil, Joseph Roth, George Saiko, Friedrich Torberg, Franz Werfel. Hardcover481 pagesAriadne Press, 19886 x 1.5 x 9 inchesISBN 9780929497006Essay, Commentary

Major Figures of Modern Austrian Literature

Edited by Philip Hensher Berlin, in the words of Philip Hensher, editor of this anthology, 'has always been a city of desperate modernity', both in terms of urban architecture—largely a creation of the progressive 19th century, laid waste by World War II, temporary home of the infamous Wall—and in ways of living and behaving. As early as the 1920s it was the gay capital of Europe; the Communist East/free West barrier presented unique problems for a divided population; and in the 1990s, in the aftermath of reunification, the cheap, run-down city became a vibrant centre for creative artists. 'The sense of making it up as you go along is never far away in Berlin.' The stories in this volume are the product of this series of multiple rebirths from the viewpoint of both insiders and outsiders. From pre-1914 there are contributions from Theodor Fontane and Robert Walser; from the Weimar Republic, Alexander Döblin, Vladimir Nabokov, Erich Kästner, Ernst Haffner, Irmgard Keun and Christopher Isherwood; from the Third Reich, Thomas Wolfe, Hans Fallada and Heinz Rein; from the Cold War era, Peter Schneider, Thomas Brussig, Len Deighton, Christa Wolf and Ian McEwan; from post-reunification, Günter Grass, Wladimir Kaminer, Chloe Aridjis, Uwe Timm, Kevin Barry, Jean-Philippe Toussaint and Jenny Erpenbeck. Hardcover400 pagesEveryman Publishing, 2019Originally published in 19794.9 x 1.2 x 7.5 inchesISBN 9781101908174Short Stories, Fiction

Berlin Stories

Translated by Peter Wortsman Bringing together tales of melancholy and madness, nightmare and fantasy, this is a new collection of the most haunting German stories from the past 200 years. Ranging from the Romantics of the early nineteenth century to works of contemporary fiction, it includes Hoffmann's hallucinatory portrait of terror and insanity The Sandman; Chamisso's influential black masterpiece Peter Schlemiel, where a man barters his own shadow; Kafka's chilling, disturbing satire In the Penal Colony; the Dadaist surrealism of Kurt Schwitters' The Onion; and Bachmann's modern fairy tale The Secrets of the Princess of Kagran. Macabre, dreamlike and expressing deep unconscious fears, these stories are also spiked with unsettling humour, showing stylistic daring as well as giving insight into the darkest recesses of the human condition. Peter Wortsman's powerful translations are accompanied by brief overviews of the lives of each author, and an introduction discussing the notion of 'angst' and the stories' place in the context of German history. Paperback372 pagesPenguin Classics, 20135.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inchesISBN 9780141198804Short Stories

Tales of the German Imagination

By Bertolt BrechtTranslated by David Constantine and Tom KuhnForeword by Barbara Brecht-Schall “Not a title that would immediately spring to mind in relation to Brecht but, as these translations by David Constantine and Tom Kuhn show, Germany's most innovative dramatist was also a gifted lyrical poet, full of passion and insight...”—Belfast Telegraph “What also surprises is the tenderness [Brecht] could convey...this book shows that there were many sides to him.”—The Herald "These deeply personal poems reveal that "[Brecht's] best love poems match the provocations of his drama"—William Giraldi, New RepublicIn Love Poems, the first volume in a monumental undertaking by David Constantine and Tom Kuhn to translate Bertolt Brecht's poetic legacy into English, the author of The Threepenny Opera emerges not just as one of the most famous playwrights of the twentieth century but also as a fiercely creative twentieth-century poet. With a personal introduction by Brecht's own daughter, Barbara Brecht-Schall, Love Poems features all-new translations of 78 of Brecht's most famous and personal works, composed in both love and grief, including "Remembering Marie A.," "The Song of Surbaya-Johnny," "The actress in exile," "Spring," "The Seventh Psalm," and "Send me a leaf," which was featured in The New Yorker. Paperback144 pagesLiveright Publishing, 20155.5 x 0.4 x 8.3 inchesISBN 9781631491115Poetry

Love Poems

By Veza CanettiTranslated by Julian PreeceThe rediscovery of the writings of Veza Canetti (1897-1963) was one of the literary events of the 1990s in German-speaking Europe. In her stories Canetti shows a taste for the grotesque, a commitment to the underdog, a forensic understanding of the psychology of wives trapped in traditional marriages, as well as wit and irony. Viennese Short Stories assembles the fiction Canetti published in her lifetime between 1932-1937 aside from her two novels (The Yellow Street and The Tortoises). These stories appeared in Viennese newspapers, first the socialistic Arbeiter-Zeitung and, after its closure, in exile journals and, finally, adopting a rather different tone and style, in the censored press of the "corporate state" under Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg. She writes about women as wives, daughters, and employees, about working-class children who are taught the harsh rules of middle-class life at an early age, about the street violence during the workers' revolt in February 1934, and the lowly status of maids. Her favorite pseudonym, Veza Magd (maid), showed her allegiance to this marginalized group, whose sense of ethics underscores their dignity, which Canetti champions. She has an acute eye for the dynamics of power in human relationships, be they based on differences in class or sex or both. She is moralistic and engaged but funny; her stories are traditional rather than Chekhovian in their twists of plot and use of the final punchline. In his introduction Julian Preece shows how Veza Canetti was an unrivaled observer of the life of the Viennese poor on the eve of Nazism. Until now Veza Canetti's literary career was overshadowed by her more famous husband, Elias Canetti (1905-1994, Nobel Prize, 1981). His failure to tell the world of her work until shortly before his death, made her two novels, three plays, and short stories even more intriguing.Paperback119 pagesAriadne Press, 20065.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inchesISBN 9781572411487Short Stories

Viennese Short Stories

By Hans FalladaTranslated by Charlotte Lloyd and A.L. Lloyd “Brilliant and devastating…It haunted my dreams.”—The Chicago Reader “This is an heroic book, brave, fearless and honest. It is necessary reading.”—The Sunday Times, London“Genuinely tragic and beautiful…[Fallada’s] perfectly horrifying, horrifyingly perfect novel is the story of himself rejected by society and returning the insult.”—New Statesmen This astonishing, autobiographical tour de force was written by Hans Fallada in an encrypted notebook while he was incarcerated in a Nazi insane asylum. Discovered after his death, it tells the tale-often fierce, often poignant, often even extremely funny-of a small business-man losing control as fights valiantly to blot out an increasingly oppressive society. In a brilliant translation by Charlotte and A.L. Lloyd, it is presented here with an afterword by John Willett that details the life and career of the once internationally acclaimed Fallada, and his fate under the Nazis-which brings out the horror of the events behind the book. Paperback304 pages Melville House, 2009Originally published in 19505.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches ISBN 9781933633657Biographical Fiction, Historical Fiction

The Drinker

By Hans FalladaTranslated by Allan Blunden “Fallada describes Berlin as an almost post-apocalyptic city dominated by death, drugs, apathy, and the almost blackly comic pettiness of the human survival instinct. This translation of this compelling novel enables a new audience to experience Fallada’s fascinating and conflicted perspective.”—Booklist“In this splendid novel, Fallada portrays the despondency and apathy of the German people in this strange period. The last months of the war are described with masterly skill, as well as the subsequent capitulation, the arrival of the Russian troops, the way in which the middle class, the “bourgeoisie” must adapt to this new environment, and the moral decline of the population.”—Zwiebelfisch“Nightmare in Berlin is the symbol for everything that happened after the end of the war.”—Der Tagesspiegel Late April, 1945. The war is over, yet Dr. Doll, a loner and ‘moderate pessimist’, lives in constant fear. By night, he is haunted by nightmarish images of the bombsite in which he is trapped―he, and the rest of Germany. More than anything, he wishes to vanquish the demon of collective guilt, but he is unable to right any wrongs, especially in his position as mayor of a small town in north-east Germany that has been occupied by the Red Army. Dr. Doll flees for Berlin, where he finds escape in a morphine addiction: each dose is a ‘small death’. He tries to make his way in the chaos of a city torn apart by war, accompanied by his young wife, who shares his addiction. Fighting to save two lives, he tentatively begins to believe in a better future. Nightmare in Berlin captures the demoralized and desperate atmosphere of post-war Germany in a way that has never been matched or surpassed. Paperback288 pagesScribe US, 2017Originally published in 19476 x 1 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9781925321197Historical Fiction

Nightmare in Berlin

By C.W. Gortner "Cinematic in both scope and story, this sweeping reconception of the professionally and personally captivating Dietrich will appeal to both film buffs and fans of historical fiction."—Booklist, starred review"Gortner skillfully evokes the cross-dressing, sexually fluid atmosphere of the seedy nightclubs that helped Marlene define her unique appeal; the scenes are lively and authentic."—Kirkus Reviews A lush, dramatic biographical novel of one of the most glamorous and alluring legends of Hollywood’s golden age, Marlene Dietrich—from the gender-bending cabarets of Weimar Berlin to the lush film studios of Hollywood, a sweeping story of passion, glamour, ambition, art, and war from the author of Mademoiselle Chanel. Raised in genteel poverty after the First World War, Maria Magdalena Dietrich dreams of a life on the stage. When a budding career as a violinist is cut short, the willful teenager vows to become a singer, trading her family’s proper, middle-class society for the free-spirited, louche world of Weimar Berlin’s cabarets and drag balls. With her sultry beauty, smoky voice, seductive silk cocktail dresses, and androgynous tailored suits, Marlene performs to packed houses and becomes entangled in a series of stormy love affairs that push the boundaries of social convention. For the beautiful, desirous Marlene, neither fame nor marriage and motherhood can cure her wanderlust. As Hitler and the Nazis rise to power, she sets sail for America. Rivaling the success of another European import, Greta Garbo, Marlene quickly becomes one of Hollywood’s leading ladies, starring with legends such as Gary Cooper, John Wayne, and Cary Grant. Desperate for her return, Hitler tries to lure her with dazzling promises. Marlene instead chooses to become an American citizen, and after her new nation is forced into World War II, she tours with the USO, performing for thousands of Allied troops in Europe and Africa. But one day she returns to Germany. Escorted by General George Patton himself, Marlene is heartbroken by the war’s devastation and the evil legacy of the Third Reich that has transformed her homeland and the family she loved. An enthralling and insightful account of this extraordinary legend, Marlene reveals the inner life of a woman of grit, glamour, and ambition who defied convention, seduced the world, and forged her own path on her own terms. Paperback432 pagesWilliam Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition, 20165.3 x 1 x 8 inchesISBN 9780062406071Biographical Fiction

Marlene: A Novel

By Hans Herbert GrimmAfterword by Volker WeidermannTranslated by Jamie Bulloch “One of the great First World War novels, about a German soldier in a French village, who falls in love with it. It’s full of criticism of how the war was conducted by Germany, so when Hitler came in, it was burnt.”—Michael Morpurgo, Daily Mail“A century after the Great War, Schlump reappears in Jamie Bulloch’s excellent new translation and the extraordinary story of its rediscovery probably warrants a novel of its own…exceptional.”—The Independent“A lost classic of anti-war literature is revived in a fresh, vigorous translation…a welcome contribution to the literature of the Great War and its discontents.”—Kirkus Seventeen-year-old Schlump marches off to war in 1915 because going to war is the best way to meet girls. And so he does, on his first posting, overseeing three villages in occupied France. But then Schlump is sent to the front, and the good times end.Schlump, written by Hans Herbert Grimm (1896-1950,) was published anonymously in 1928 and was one of the first German novels to describe World War I in all its horror and absurdity, and it remains one of the best. What really sets it apart is its remarkable central character. Who is Schlump? A bit of a rascal and a bit of a sweetheart, a victim of his times, an inveterate survivor, maybe even a new type of man. At once comedy, documentary, hellhole, and fairy tale, Schlump is a gripping and disturbing book about the experience of trauma and what the great critic Walter Benjamin, writing at the same time as Hans Herbert Grimm, would call the death of experience, since perhaps if anything goes, nothing counts. Paperback288 pagesNYRB Classics, 2016Originally Published in 19285.2 x 0.6 x 8 inchesISBN 9781681370262Fiction

Schlump

Edited by Neue Galerie Deputy Director Scott Gutterman “The intertwining of the visual and the literary is the underlying basis for this provocative and thoughtful anthology . . . What is undeniable is the pleasure in slowly sifting through Gutterman’s choices . . . Gutterman has been brooding, he says, on the associations between poetry and the visual arts for 30 years, and his choice is both intriguing and captivating. It makes us look more intensely, feel — and think.”—Art Quarterly“This book would make a charming gift for a literary sort with an eye for art, or vice versa. Art ranges from Vermeer to Edward Hopper, Mark Rothko and Larry Rivers. The poets flow from Shakespeare to William Carlos Williams and Rainer Maria Rilke.”—StarTribune The world’s great poets interpret the world’s great art in this exquisite book that investigates the connection between art and words, deepening our understanding of both.The poet and the artist share a special kind of vision—an ability to see and penetrate the very essence of their subjects. This volume features poems by writers who turned to paintings for their inspiration, as well as paintings by artists who based their works on poems. Stretching across centuries and styles, this collection includes Rossetti’s haunting sonnet based on Botticelli’s "Primavera"; Wallace Stevens’s “The Man with the Blue Guitar,” a masterful meditation on an iconic painting by Picasso; William Carlos Williams’s joyous interpretations of scenes by Breughel; and Adrienne Rich lending a compassionate voice to the subject of Edwin Romanzo Elmer’s "The Mourning Chair". These and other pairings appear as elegant texts facing full page, glowing illustrations of the paintings. An introduction to some of the greatest poets and painters in history, this remarkable book makes a perfect gift, offering compelling insights into the worlds of art and literature, and the relationship between the two. Hardcover144 pages | 60 color illustrationsPrestel, 20158.6 x 0.8 x 10.9 inchesISBN 9783791354774Poetry, Art

Sunlight on the River: Poems About Paintings, Paintings About Poems

By Alice Herdan-ZuckmayerTranslated by Ida H. Washington and Carol E. WashingtonIntroduction by Elisa Albert “These literate glimpses of rural America make good stand-alone chapter reads: raising chickens, meeting reticent New England neighbors, marveling at the mysterious USDA pamphlets or the Sears, Roebuck catalog, journeying to the Dartmouth library, etc…This volume will be of special regional and historical interest as well as of general interest in public libraries where anecdotal essays are popular.”—Booklist“The Zuckmayers’ courage and strength is an inspiration to all who may be set in unfamiliar surroundings, even in their own country.”—Publishers Weekly“The book offers readers an interesting historical perspective of Vermont during the war years, as well as an inspiring narrative on the indomitable human instinct to survive….The contemporary reader will come away feeling inspired by the Zuckmayers’ perseverance and with renewed gratitude for all of the amenities (like heat) which we now take for granted.”—Jennifer Falvey, Vermont Standard Alice and Carl Zuckmayer lived at the center of Weimar era Berlin. She was a former actor turned medical student, he was a playwright, and their circle of friends included Stefan Zweig, Alma Mahler, and Bertolt Brecht. But then the Nazis took over and Carl’s most recent success, a play satirizing German militarism, impressed them in all the wrong ways. The couple and their two daughters were forced to flee, first to Austria, then to Switzerland, and finally to the United States. Los Angeles didn’t suit them, neither did New York, but a chance stroll in the Vermont woods led them to Backwoods Farm and the eighteenth-century farmhouse where they would spend the next five years. In Europe, the Zuckmayers were accustomed to servants; in Vermont, they found themselves building chicken coops, refereeing fights between fractious ducks, and caring for temperamental water pipes “like babies.” But in spite of the endless work and the brutal, depressing winters, Alice found that in America she had at last discovered her “native land.” This generous, surprising, and witty memoir, a best seller in postwar Germany, has all the charm of an unlikely romantic comedy. Paperback256 pagesNYRB Classics, 2017Originally published 19495 x 0.6 x 8 inches ISBN 9781681370743Memoir

The Farm in the Green Mountains

By Hermann Hesse Translated by Michael Roloff “A remarkable mixture of affection, gentle humor, compassion, light irony, bitterness, and cold, angry indignation.”—The Sacramento Bee“Can be read for sheer pleasure. Hesse's peculiarly supple lyricism, his brittle irony, and his stunning descriptions of nature are marvelously carried over into the English.”—The Saturday Review“[A] Black Forest Catcher in the Rye, a work infused with that sense of homesickness that Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., quite rightly said was so prominent in Hesse's novels.”—The National Observer In Hermann Hesse's Beneath the Wheel, Hans Giebernath lives among the dull and respectable townsfolk of a sleepy Black Forest village. When he is discovered to be an exceptionally gifted student, the entire community presses him onto a path of serious scholarship. Hans dutifully follows the regimen of study and endless examinations, his success rewarded only with more crushing assignments. When Hans befriends a rebellious young poet, he begins to imagine other possibilities outside the narrowly circumscribed world of the academy. Finally sent home after a nervous breakdown, Hans is revived by nature and romance, and vows never to return to the gray conformity of the academic system. Paperback192 pagesPicador Publishing, 2003Originally published in 19068.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inchesISBN 9780312422301Fiction

Beneath the Wheel

By Hermann Hesse "All I really wanted was to try and live the life that was spontaneously welling up within me. Why was that so very difficult?" Generations of readers have recognized the impassioned cry that introduces the young narrator of Demian, and embraced this tale of a troubled young man's struggle toward self-awareness. Initially published in Berlin in 1919, the novel met with instant critical acclaim, as well as great popular success among people seeking answers amid the devastating aftermath of World War I. A brilliant psychological portrait of an individual's departure from social conventions in the search for spiritual fulfillment, Demian encompasses many of the themes associated with Hermann Hesse, its Noble Prize–winning author, particularly the duality of human nature and the quest for inner peace. Considered an important work in the evolution of 20th-century European literature, this perceptive coming-of-age novel enjoys a particular resonance with young adults, a fact that has made Demian a perennial favorite in schools and colleges all over the world. This inexpensive edition, featuring an excellent new English translation, is sure to be welcomed by teachers and students, and by the legions of confirmed Hesse fans.Paperback128 pagesDover Publications, 2012Originally published in 19195.2 x 0.2 x 8 inchesISBN 9780486414133Psychological Fiction

Demian (Dover Thrift Editions)

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Hilda Rosner With Gertrude, Herman Hesse continues his lifelong exploration of the irreconcilable elements of human existence. In this fictional memoir, the renowned composer Kuhn recounts his tangled relationships with two artists--his friend Heinrich Muoth, a brooding, self-destructive opera singer, and the gentle, self-assured Gertrude Imthor. Kuhn is drawn to Gertrude upon their first meeting, but Gertrude falls in love with Heinrich, to whom she is introduced when Kuhn auditions them for the leads in his new opera. Hopelessly ill-matched, Gertrude and Heinrich have a disastrous marriage that leaves them both ruined. Yet this tragic affair also becomes the inspiration for Kuhn’s opera, the most important success of his artistic life. Paperback237 pagesPicador Publishing, 2005Originally published in 19105.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inchesISBN 9780312424633Fictional Memoir

Gertrude

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Hilda RosnerIn simple, mesmerizing prose, Hermann Hesse's Journey to the East tells of a journey both geographic and spiritual. H.H., a German choirmaster, is invited on an expedition with the League, a secret society whose members include Paul Klee, Mozart, and Albertus Magnus. The participants traverse both space and time, encountering Noah’s Ark in Zurich and Don Quixote at Bremgarten. The pilgrims’ ultimate destination is the East, the “Home of the Light,” where they expect to find spiritual renewal. Yet the harmony that ruled at the outset of the trip soon degenerates into open conflict. Each traveler finds the rest of the group intolerable and heads off in his own direction, with H.H. bitterly blaming the others for the failure of the journey. It is only long after the trip, while poring over records in the League archives, that H.H. discovers his own role in the dissolution of the group, and the ominous significance of the journey itself. Paperback118 pagesPicador Publishing, 2003Originally published in 19325.5 x 0.4 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9780312421687Spirituality, Fiction

The Journey to the East

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Ursule Molinaro “Hesse was a great writer in precisely the modern sense: complex, subtle, allusive; alive to the importance of play, to the desperate yet frolicsome game of writing....Narcissus and Goldmund is his very best....What makes this short book so limitlessly vast is the body-and-soul-shaking debate that runs through it, which it has the honesty and courage not to resolve: between the flesh and spirit, art and scientific or religious speculation, action and contemplation, between the wayfaring and the sedentary in us.”—The New York Times Book Review“One of the most profound and magical novels published in our age.”—Kirkus ReviewsHermann Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher’s fierce intellect and sense of discipline. When Narcissus persuades the young student that he is not meant for a life of self-denial, Goldmund sets off in pursuit of aesthetic and physical pleasures, a path that leads him to a final, unexpected reunion with Narcissus.Paperback315 pagesPicador Publishing, 2003Originally published in 19300.8 x 5.4 x 8.4 inchesISBN 9780312421670Historical Fiction

Narcissus and Goldmund

By Hermann Hesse Translated by Michael Roloff “Moving and profound. Hesse is a writer of suggestion, of nuance, of spiritual intimation.” —The Christian Science Monitor Peter Camenzind, a young man from a Swiss mountain village, leaves his home and eagerly takes to the road in search of new experience. Traveling through Italy and France, Camenzind is increasingly disillusioned by the suffering he discovers around him; after failed romances and a tragic friendship, his idealism fades into crushing hopelessness. He finds peace again only when he cares for Boppi, an invalid who renews Camenzind’s love for humanity and inspires him once again to find joy in the smallest details of every life. Paperback201 pagesPicador Publishing, 2003Originally published in 19048.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inchesISBN 9780312422639Fiction

Peter Camenzind

By Hermann HesseIntroduction by Theodore ZialkowskiTranslated by Rika LesserIn the spring of 1922, several months after completing Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse wrote a fairy tale that was also a love story, inspired by the woman who was to become his second wife. That story, Pictor’s Metamorphoses, is the centerpiece of this anthology of Hesse’s luminous short fiction. Based on The Arabian Nights and the work of the Brothers Grimm, the nineteen stories collected here represent a half century of Hesse's short writings. They display the full range of Hesse’s lifetime fascination with fantasy—as dream, fairy tale, satire, or allegory.Paperback240 pagesPicador Publishing, 2003Originally published in 1922ISBN 9780312422646Short Stories, Fantasy

Pictor's Metamorphoses and Other Fantasies

By Hermann Hesse Translated by James Wright “Hesse is a writer of suggestion, of nuance, of spiritual intimation.”—Christian Science Monitor“One of the defining spirits of our century.”—Ralph Freedman, Princeton UniversityFew American readers seem to be aware that Hermann Hesse, author of the epic novels Steppenwolf and Siddartha, among many others, also wrote poetry, the best of which the poet James Wright has translated and included in this book. This is a special volume—filled with short, direct poems about love, death, loneliness, the seasons—that is imbued with some of the imagery and feeling of Hesse’s novels but that has a clarity and resonance all its own, a sense of longing for love and for home that is both deceptively simple and deeply moving.Paperback79 pagesFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008Originally published in 19715.7 x 0.3 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9780374526412Poetry

Poems

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Ralph Manheim “Hesse's finest short story...This book's maturity, craftsmanship, and truthfulness recommend it as an outstanding work.”—The Oregon Journal “Rosshalde shimmers with the vitality of a richly imagined existence.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “A kind of disguised biography, an account of Hesse's quite private turmoil on the eve of the war.”—The Christian Science MonitorHermann Hesse's Rosshalde is the classic story of a man torn between obligations to his family and his longing for a spiritual fulfillment that can only be found outside the confines of conventional society.Johann Veraguth, a wealthy, successful artist, is estranged from his wife and stifled by the unhappy union. Veraguth’s love for his young son and his fear of drifting rootlessly keep him bound within the walls of his opulent estate, Rosshalde. Yet, when he is shaken by an unexpected tragedy, Veraguth finally finds the courage to leave the desolate safety of Rosshalde and travels to India to discover himself anew.Paperback224 pagesPicador, 2003Originally published in 19145.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inchesISBN 9780312422295Fiction

Rosshalde

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Sherab Chodzin Kohn "Filled with timeless truths and told so beautifully with images that burn deep into your being, Hesse’s novel speaks powerfully to every generation of spiritual seekers. . . . A fresh translation of Siddhartha that offers greater authenticity than any other translation—while still preserving the unique beauty of the original prose."—Branches of Light This classic of twentieth-century literature chronicles the spiritual evolution of a man living in India at the time of the Buddha—a tale that has inspired generations of readers. We are invited along on Siddhartha’s journey, experiencing his highs, lows, loves, and disappointments along with the beauty and intricacies of the mind, the natural world, and everything he encounters on the path to enlightenment.Sherab Chödzin Kohn’s flowing, poetic translation conveys the philosophical and spiritual nuances of Hesse’s text, paying special attention to the meditative experience. The introduction to this edition explores Hesse’s own spiritual journey as evidenced in his journals and personal letters and the wide-ranging impact Siddhartha has had, and continues to have, on American culture. Also available in German. Paperback208 pagesShambhala Publications; Reprint, 2018Originally published in 192210.7 x 1.5 x 17.1 cmISBN 9781611806441Fiction, Philosophy

Siddhartha

By Hermann HesseIntroduction and Translated by Stanley Appelbaum With its excellent line-for-line English translation on facing pages, this handy dual-language volume allows students of German language and literature an ideal way to read the 1922 classic based on events from the life of Buddha. The restless young Brahmin Siddhartha undertakes a spiritual journey that takes him from years of asceticism to the utmost sensual and materialistic indulgence before he achieves his long-sought enlightenment. Paperback192 pagesText in German and EnglishDover Publishing, 1998Originally published in 19225.4 x 0.4 x 8.4 inchesISBN 9780486404370Fiction

Siddhartha (Dual-Language) German/English

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Sherab Chödzin KohnWith an Introduction by Paul W. Morris "Filled with timeless truths and told so beautifully with images that burn deep into your being, Hesse’s novel speaks powerfully to every generation of spiritual seekers. . . . A fresh translation of Siddhartha that offers greater authenticity than any other translation—while still preserving the unique beauty of the original prose."—Branches of Light This classic of twentieth-century literature chronicles the spiritual evolution of a man living in India at the time of the Buddha—a spiritual journey that has inspired generations of readers. Here is a fresh translation from Sherab Chödzin Kohn, a gifted translator and longtime student of Buddhism and Eastern philosophy. Kohn's flowing, poetic translation conveys the philosophical and spiritual nuances of Hesse's text, paying special attention to the qualities of meditation experience. This edition also includes an introduction exploring Hesse's own spiritual journey as evidenced in his journals and personal letters. Also available in German. Paperback119 pagesShambhala Publications, 2000Originally published in 19226 x 0.4 x 9 inchesISBN 9781570627217Spirituality, Fiction

By Hermann HesseThis classic novel of self-discovery has inspired generations of seekers. With parallels to the enlightenment of the Buddha, Hesse's Siddhartha is the story of a young Brahmin's quest for the ultimate reality. His quest takes him from the extremes of indulgent sensuality to the rigors of asceticism and self-denial. At last he learns that wisdom cannot be taught - it must come from one's own experience and inner struggle. Steeped in the tenets of both psychoanalysis and Eastern mysticism, Siddhartha presents a strikingly original view of man and culture, and the arduous process of self-discovery that leads to reconciliation, harmony, and peace.Paperback108 pagesDover Thrift Editions, 2012Originally published in 19225.2 x 0.5 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9780486406534Fiction, Spirituality

Siddhartha (Dover Thrift Editions)

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Basil Creighton "For all its savagely articulate descriptions of torment and isolation, it is most eloquent about something less glamorous but far more important: healing."—The GuardianWith its blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, Hesse’s best-known and most autobiographical work is one of literature’s most poetic evocations of the soul’s journey to liberation.Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine. The tale of the Steppenwolf culminates in the surreal Magic Theater—For Madmen Only!Originally published in English in 1929, Steppenwolf ’s wisdom continues to speak to our souls and marks it as a classic of modern literature. Also available in German. Paperback224 pagesPicador Publishing, 2002Originally published in 1927ISBN 9780312278670Autobiographical Fiction

Steppenwolf

Von Hermann HesseDer Steppenwolf ist die Geschichte von Harry Haller, der sich im Zustand völliger Entfremdung von seiner bürgerlichen Welt »eine geniale, eine unbegrenzte furchtbare Leidensfähigkeit herangebildet« hat. Die innere Zerrissenheit Hallers spiegelt die Erscheinungen der modernen Massen- und Industriegesellschaft wider und reflektiert kultur- und zivilisationskritische Strömungen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Also available in English. Paperback278 pagesText in GermanSuhrkamp, 2004Originally published in 19274.2 x 0.8 x 6.8 inchesISBN 9783518366752Fiction

Der Steppenwolf

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Richard and Clara WinstonWith a foreword by Theodore Ziolkowski "...a genre blend of science fiction, fantasy, and fictional biography, leavened with musicology, poetry, and Hesse’s unique swirl of Eastern and Western philosophy."—The American Scholar The final novel of Hermann Hesse, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, The Glass Bead Game is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literatureSet in the 23rd century, The Glass Bead Game is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game). Paperback576 pagesPicador Publishing, 2002Originally published in 19435.6 x 1 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9780312278496Fiction

The Glass Bead Game

By Hermann Hesse Translated by Jack Zipes “Sometimes lush and lyrical, sometimes in the simple language of the parable, these tales elaborate Hesse’s concerns with mortality, the unity of life and the isolation of the artist. . . . Quirky and evocative, Hesse’s fairy tales stand alone, but also amplify the ideas and utopian longings of such counterculture avatars as Siddhartha and Steppenwolf.”—Publishers Weekly“Hesse unerringly creates the feel of a fairy tale. . . . Lay readers will enjoy this as much as literary specialists.”—Library Journal A collection of twenty-two fairy tales by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, most translated into English for the first time, shows the influence of German Romanticism, psychoanalysis, and Eastern religion on Hesse’s development as an author. Paperback304 pagesBantam, 19955.2 x 0.7 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9780553377767Fiction, Fairy Tales

The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse

Translated and with commentary by Ludwig Max Fischer, PhDForeword by Andrew Harvey Vowing at an early age “to be a poet or nothing at all,” Hermann Hesse rebelled against formal education, focusing on a rigorous program of independent study that included literature, philosophy, art, and history. One result of these efforts was a series of novels that became counterculture bibles that remain widely influential today. Another was a body of evocative spiritual poetry. Published for the first time in English, these vivid, probing short works reflect deeply on the challenges of life and provide a spiritual solace that transcends specific denominational hymns, prayers, and rituals.The Seasons of the Soul offers valuable guidance in poetic form for those longing for a more meaningful life, seeking a sense of homecoming in nature, in each stage of life, in a renewed relationship with the divine. Extensive quotations from his prose introduce each theme addressed in the book: love, imagination, nature, the divine, and the passage of time. A foreword by Andrew Harvey reintroduces us to a figure about whom some may have believed everything had already been said. Thoughtful commentary throughout from translator Ludwig Max Fischer helps readers understand the poems within the context of Hesse’s life. Paperback113 pagesNorth Atlantic Books, 20116 x 0.4 x 8.9 inchesISBN 9781583943137Poetry

The Seasons of the Soul: The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse

By Gunnar DeckerTranslated by Peter Lewis “Top-notch….A masterful, penetrating biography…that deserves the accolade ‘definitive.’…Decker lays bare Hesse’s complex, contradictory personality, his all-consuming dedication to the creative life, his tormented relationships with women, and the cultural and political forces that found their ways into his works….A richly detailed and supremely sensitive portrayal of an artist obsessed with the ‘terrible and magnificent’ act of creation.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review“Shows that Hesse’s life was an uneasy compromise between his spiritual absolutism, which pushed him in the direction of irascible isolation, and his human needs, which encumbered him with wives, children, and houses that he never quite wanted or accepted.”—Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker Against the horrors of Nazi dictatorship and widespread disillusionment with the forces of mass culture and consumerism, Hermann Hesse’s stories inspired nonconformity and a yearning for universal values. Few today would doubt Hesse’s artistry or his importance to millions of devoted readers. But just who was the author of Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and Demian? Gunnar Decker weaves together previously unavailable sources to offer a unique interpretation of the life and work of Hermann Hesse. Drawing on recently discovered correspondence between Hesse and his psychoanalyst, Josef Lang, Decker shows how Hesse reversed the traditional roles of therapist and client, and rethinks the relationship between Hesse’s novels and Jungian psychoanalysis. He also explores Hesse’s correspondence with Stefan Zweig―recently unearthed―to find the source of Hesse’s profound sense of alienation from his contemporaries. Decker’s biography brings to life this icon of spiritual searching and disenchantment who galvanized the counterculture in the 1960s and feels newly relevant today. Hardback800 pagesHarvard University Press, 20186.7 x 1.7 x 9.2 inchesISBN 9780674737884Biography

Hesse: The Wanderer and His Shadow

By Hermann HesseTranslated from the German by Damion Searls“One of humanity’s most beautiful love letters to trees.” ―The Marginalian “Nature frequently brings out our deepest thoughts, but few can express those thoughts better than Hermann Hesse does in this anthology.” —New York Journal of Books An elegant collection of Hermann Hesse’s essays, poems, and passages on the subject of trees and nature, accompanied by thirty-one of his watercolor illustrations. Hermann Hesse understood trees to be symbols of transcendence and rebirth, of instinctive growth present in all natural life. This elegant collection of his essays, poems, and passages on trees, accompanied by thirty-one of his watercolor illustrations, reveals his inspired thoughts on nature, spirituality, and self-knowledge. Together, his writings and paintings mirror the seasons and landscapes as he experienced them, and help remind us that trees’ annual rings are representations of our own days’ struggle, happiness, and purpose.In the author’s words: “They struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws . . . Whoever has learned to listen to trees no longer wants to be one. He wants to be nothing except who he is.”Hardcover 136 pages | 31 full-color watercolors from Hermann HesseKales Press, 20225.3 x 0.7 x 7.4 inchesISBN 9781737832713 Anthology, Nature Writing

Trees: An Anthology of Writings and Paintings

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Elisabeth LaufferIllustrated by Jakob Hübner"A charming book for nature and literature lovers...leaving audiences feeling as lucky to encounter it as Hesse felt about meeting his winged subjects."―Foreword Reviews This volume gathers the most alluring stories, recollections, contemplations and poems on butterflies by Herman Hesse. "I have always had a connection with butterflies and other fleeting and ephemeral beauties, while I have never succeeded in maintaining permanent, committed and so-called solid relationships," writes Hermann Hesse in a letter from 1926. This preference, occasionally resembling an elective affinity, for "flowers and butterflies, that are of everlasting things, a fleeting allegory" – as he says in one of his poems, has left its mark on Hesse’s entire oeuvre.Hardcover136 pages | 110 full-color engraved copper illustrations Kales Press, 20235.3 x 0.7 x 7.3 inchesISBN 9798985955859 Anthology, Nature Writing

Butterflies: Reflection, Tales, and Verse

By Franz HesselTranslated by Amanda DeMarcoIntroduction by Walter Benjamin "Reading Walking in Berlin is the next best thing to traveling back in time to visit the capital of the Weimar Republic as it was in 1929."―PopMatters "An absolutely epic book, a walking remembrance."—Walter Benjamin"Hessel describes the small joys and ephemeral pleasures of big-city life in the age of commodity display. The Berlin that comes alive on these pages was destroyed in the last world war, which took as its victims both Hessel and his comrade in flanerie, Walter Benjamin. Hence the poignancy of this beautifully written book. Today we know the fragility of urban dreamworlds, drawn into the orbit of fashion's temporality. The urban pleasures captured here come to us with a sense of foreboding."―Susan Buck-Morss, Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate Center The first English translation of a lost classic that reinvents the flaneur in Berlin. Franz Hessel (1880-1941), a German-born writer, grew up in Berlin, studied in Munich, and then lived in Paris, where he moved in artistic and literary circles. His relationship with the fashion journalist Helen Grund was the inspiration for Henri-Pierre Roche's novel Jules et Jim (made into a celebrated 1962 film by Francois Truffaut). In collaboration with Walter Benjamin, Hessel reinvented the Parisian figure of the flaneur. This 1929 book—here in its first English translation—offers Hessel's version of a flaneur in Berlin. In Walking in Berlin, Hessel captures the rhythm of Weimar-era Berlin, recording the seismic shifts in German culture. Nearly all of the essays take the form of a walk or outing, focusing on either a theme or part of the city, and many end at a theater, cinema, or club. Hessel deftly weaves the past with the present, walking through the city's history as well as its neighborhoods. Even today, his walks in the city, from the Alexanderplatz to Kreuzberg, can guide would-be flaneurs. Walking in Berlin is a lost classic, known mainly because of Hessel's connection to Benjamin but now introduced to readers of English. Walking in Berlin was a central model for Benjamin's Arcades Project and remains a classic of "walking literature" that ranges from Surrealist perambulation to Situationist "psychogeography." This MIT Press edition includes the complete text in translation as well as Benjamin's essay on Walking in Berlin, originally written as a review of the book's original edition. Hardcover304 pagesMIT Press, 2017Originally published in 19295.4 x 0.8 x 8 inchesISBN 9780262036351Travel, Essay, History

Walking in Berlin: A Flaneur in the Capital

By Christopher Isherwood “In Isherwood's work, a magic potion of history and invention, the voice is clear, and, no matter how many times we hear it, it always seems to be speaking for the first time.”—Howard Moss, The New York Times“The best prose writer in English.”—Gore VidalA classic of 20th-century fiction, The Berlin Stories inspired the Broadway musical and Oscar-winning film Cabaret.First published in the 1930s, The Berlin Stories contains two astonishing related novels, Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin, which are recognized today as classics of modern fiction. Isherwood magnificently captures 1931 Berlin: charming, with its avenues and cafés; marvelously grotesque, with its nightlife and dreamers; dangerous, with its vice and intrigue; powerful and seedy, with its mobs and millionaires―this is the period when Hitler was beginning his move to power. The Berlin Stories is inhabited by a wealth of characters: the unforgettable Sally Bowles, whose misadventures in the demimonde were popularized on the American stage and screen by Julie Harris in I Am A Camera and Liza Minnelli in Cabaret; Mr. Norris, the improbable old debauchee mysteriously caught between the Nazis and the Communists; plump Fräulein Schroeder, who thinks an operation to reduce the scale of her Büste might relieve her heart palpitations; and the distinguished and doomed Jewish family, the Landauers. Paperback410 pagesNew Directions, 2008 Originally published in 19455.2 x 1.3 x 8 inchesISBN 9780811218047Fiction, Short Story, LGBT

The Berlin Stories

By Christopher Isherwood “Sally Bowles took center stage in the book’s musical adaptation, Cabaret, but the theatrical version can’t match the power and richness of the original.”—Time, 100 Best English-Language Novels of the 20th-Century“In Isherwood's work, a magic potion of history and invention, the voice is clear, and, no matter how many times we hear it, it always seems to be speaking for the first time.”—Howard Moss, The New York Times Book Review First published in 1934, Goodbye to Berlin has been popularized on stage and screen by Julie Harris in I Am a Camera and Liza Minelli in Cabaret. Isherwood magnificently captures 1931 Berlin: charming with its avenues and cafés; marvelously grotesque with its nightlife and dreamers; dangerous with its vice and intrigue; powerful and seedy with its mobs and millionaires. The shadow of Hitler looms menacingly, towering higher and higher. Goodbye to Berlin is inhabited by a wealth of characters: the unforgettable and "divinely decadent" Sally Bowles; plump Fraülein Schroeder, who considers reducing her Büste to relieve heart palpitations; Peter and Otto, a gay couple struggling with their relationship; and the distinguished and doomed Jewish family the Landauers. Paperback218 pagesNew Directions, 2012Originally Published in 19345.2 x 0.7 x 8 inchesISBN 9780811220248Fiction

Goodbye to Berlin

By Christopher Isherwood “The best prose writer in English.”—Gore VidalOn a train to Berlin in late 1930, William Bradshaw locks eyes with Arthur Norris, an irresistibly comical fellow Englishman wearing a rather obvious wig and nervous about producing his passport at the frontier. So begins a friendship conducted in the seedier quarters of the city, where Norris runs a dubious import-export business and lives in excited fear of his bullying secretary, his creditors, and his dominatrix girlfriend, Anni. As the worldwide economic Depression strangles the masses and the Communists make a desperate stand against Fascism and war, Norris sells himself as political orator, spy, and double agent. He also sells his friends. Like its companion novel, Goodbye to Berlin, Mr Norris Changes Trains offers unforgettable characters struggling in the vortex as the Nazis rise to power. Paperback224 pagesNew Directions, 2013Originally published in 1935 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inchesISBN 9780811220262Fiction

Mr Norris Changes Trains

By Christopher Isherwood "Prater Violet resembles the episodes in Goodbye to Berlin and keeps up the same high level of excellence."—Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker"Prater Violet, in my view, is one of the best short novels in English written in this century."—Stanley Kauffman, The New Republic "Prater Violet is the most charming novel I have read in a long time."—Diana Trilling Originally published in 1945, Christopher Isherwood's Prater Violet is a stingingly satirical novel about the film industry. It centers around the production of the vacuous fictional melodrama 'Prater Violet', set in nineteenth-century Vienna, providing an ironic counterpoint to tragic events as Hitler annexes the real Vienna of the 1930s. The novel features vivid portraits of the imperious, passionate, and witty Austrian director Friedrich Bergmann and his disciple, a genial young screenwriter―the fictionalized Christopher Isherwood. Paperback144 pagesFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015Originally published in 1945 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9780374535247Satire, Fiction

Prater Violet: A Novel

By Jac Jemc“[An] audacious social satire. Comedic, tragic, and all around entertaining, Empty Theatre is a welcome addition to Jemc’s bibliography.”—Chicago Review of Books"Jac Jemc’s dreamscape of a novel weaves history and imagination into a wonder world. Empty Theater is an ingenious and totally absorbing gambol through beauty, decadence, and the bizarre absurdities of lives spent in the dizzying clouds of royalty and pomp. Jemc is a writer of enviable talent and soulful intelligence."—Samantha Hunt, author of The Dark DarkA wildly over-the-top social satire reimagining the mad misadventures of the iconic royal cousins King Ludwig and Empress Sisi, from the incomparable Jac Jemc.History knows them as King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Elizabeth of Austria, icons of the late nineteenth century who died young and left behind magnificent portraits and palaces. But to each other they were Ludwig and Sisi, cousins who shared a passion for beauty and a stubborn refusal to submit to the roles imposed upon them.Ludwig, simultaneously spoiled and punished for his softness and "unmanly" interests, falls hard for the operas of Richard Wagner and neglects his state duties in the pursuit of art. Sisi, married at the age of sixteen to her beloved Franzl, bristles at the restrictions of her elevated position, the value placed on her beauty, and the simultaneous expectation that she ravage her body again and again in childbirth. Both absurdly vain, both traumatized by the demands of their roles, Sisi and Ludwig struggle against the ideals they are expected to embody, and resist through extravagance, petulance, performance, and frivolity.A tragicomic tour de force, Empty Theatre immerses readers in Ludwig and Sisi’s rarefied, ridiculous, restrictive world—where the aesthetics of excess belie the isolation of its inhabitants. With wit, pathos, and imagination, Jac Jemc takes us on an unforgettable journey through two extraordinary parallel lives and the complex, tenuous friendship that linked them.Hardcover464 pagesMCD, 20235.8 x 1.4 x 8.6 inchesISBN 9780374277925Satire, Literature

Empty Theatre: A Novel

By Franz KafkaNew Translation by Michael Hofmann "A stirring, singular work, now restored to its original beauty."—John Ashbery"Michael Hofmann’s magnificent new translation restores its rightful place as one of Kafka’s most delightful and most memorable works."—Charles Simic Newly restored to the original text: for this new translation, Hofmann returned to Kafka’s manuscripts, restoring matters of substance and detail, and even the book’s original ending. Michael Hofmann's startlingly visceral and immediate translation revives Kafka's great comedy, and captures a new Kafka, free from Prague and loose in the new world, a Kafka shot through with light in this highly charged and enormously nuanced translation. Kafka began the first of his three novels in 1911, but like the others, Amerika remained unfinished, and perhaps, as Klaus Mann suggested, "necessarily endless." Karl Rossman, the youthful hero of the novel, "a poor boy of seventeen," has been banished by his parents to America, following a scandal. There, with unquenchable optimism, he throws himself into adventure after misadventure, and experiences multiply as he makes his way into the heart of the country, to The Great Nature Theater of Oklahoma. In creating this new translation, Hofmann, as he explains in his introduction, returned to the manuscript version of the book, restoring matters of substance and detail. Fragments which have never before been presented in English are now reinstated including the book's original "ending." Paperback218 pagesNew Directions Publishing, 2004 Originally published in 19275.2 x 0.7 x 8 inchesISBN 9780811215695Fiction

Amerika: The Man Who Disappeared

By Franz KafkaTranslated by Michael Hofmann “I think of a Kafka story as a perfect work of literary art, as approachable as it is strange, and as strange as it is approachable.” —Michael HofmannFor all his fame, Franz Kafka published only a small number of stories in his lifetime. This new translation of those stories, by Michael Hofmann, one of the most respected German-to-English translators at work today, makes Kafka's best-known works available to a new generation of readers. Metamorphosis gives full expression to the breadth of Kafka's literary vision and the extraordinary depth of his imagination.Franz Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague, where he lived most of his life. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories, including "The Metamorphosis", "The Judgment", and "The Stoker". He died in 1924, before completing any of his full-length novels. At the end of his life, Kafka asked his lifelong friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work. Brod overrode those wishes.Paperback320 pagesPenguin Classics Deluxe Edition, 2008Originally published in 19155.7 x 0.8 x 8.4 inchesISBN 9780143105244Short Stories, Fiction

Metamorphosis and Other Stories

By Franz KafkaNewly Translated by Ritchie RobertsonEntering New York harbor, the young immigrant Karl Rossmann sees the Statue of Liberty, "her arm with the sword stretched upward." This forbidding introduction sets the tone for Kafka's narrative about an innocent European astray in an ultra-modern America that is both a fantasy and an object of social satire. Full of incident and blackly humorous, Kafka's first novel portrays American civilization with horrified fascination, in a biting satire which gives fresh meaning to the term "Kafkaesque." Ritchie Robertson's sensitive and natural translation is both faithful to Kafka's style and highly readable. Moreover, this is the only edition to provide a full introduction and explanatory notes. The introduction explains why Kafka set the novel in America, a country he had never visited, what his sources of information were, and how he distorts his fictional America for satirical purposes. The notes incorporate the most recent Kafka scholarship to illuminate difficult parts of the text. In addition, a Biographical Preface provides an account of Kafka's life. The book also includes an up-to-date bibliography and a chronology.Paperback215 pagesOxford University Press, 2012Originally published in 19277.7 x 0.7 x 5.1 inchesISBN 9780199601127Fiction

The Man Who Disappeared (America)

By Franz KafkaTranslated, Edited, and with an Introduction by Stanley CorngoldFeaturing essays by Philip Roth, W. H Auden, and Walter Benjamin “I think of a Kafka story as a perfect work of literary art, as approachable as it is strange, and as strange as it is approachable.” —Michael Hofmann“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Franz Kafka begins his masterpiece, "The Metamorphosis". It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, "The Metamorphosis" has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction.This Modern Library edition collects Stanley Corngold’s acclaimed English translation—long hailed as the gold standard by scholars and general readers alike—along with seven critical essays by writers including Philip Roth, W. H. Auden, and Walter Benjamin, background and contextual material, and a new Introduction from Corngold himself.Paperback370 pagesModern Library, 2013Originally published in 19155.2 x 0.8 x 8 inchesISBN 9780812985146Fiction, Fantasy

The Metamorphosis

By Franz KafkaNewly translated by Joyce Crick'When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into some kind of monstrous vermin.' With a bewildering blend of the everyday and the fantastical, Kafka thus begins his most famous short story, "The Metamorphosis". A commercial traveler is unexpectedly freed from his dreary job by his inexplicable transformation into an insect, which drastically alters his relationship with his family. Kafka considered publishing it with two of the stories included here in a volume to be called Punishments. "The Judgement" also concerns family tensions, when a power struggle between father and son ends with the father passing an enigmatic judgement on the helpless son. The third story, "In the Penal Colony", explores questions of power, justice, punishment, and the meaning of pain in a colonial setting. These three stories are flanked by two very different works. Meditation, the first book Kafka published, consists of light, whimsical, often poignant mood-pictures, while in the autobiographical Letter to his Father, Kafka analyses his difficult relationship in forensic and devastating detail.Paperback146 pagesOxford University Press, 20097.7 x 0.8 x 5 inchesISBN 9780199238552Fiction, Short Stories

The Metamorphosis and Other Stories

By Franz KafkaTranslated by Stanley Appelbaum Since his death in 1924, Kafka has come to be regarded as one of the greatest modern writers, one whose work brilliantly explores the anxiety, futility, and complexity of modern life. The precision and clarity of Kafka's style, its powerful symbolism, and his existential exploration of the human condition have given his work universal significance. In addition to the title selection, considered by many critics Kafka's most perfect work, this collection includes "The Judgment", "In the Penal Colony", "A Country Doctor", and "A Report to an Academy". Stanley Appelbaum has provided excellent new English translation of the stories and a brief Note placing them within Kafka's oeuvre.A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.Paperback96 pagesDover Publications, 1996Originally published in 19155.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inchesISBN 9780486290300Short Stories, Fiction

The Metamorphosis and Other Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)

By Franz KafkaNewly Translated and with a preface by Breon Mitchell "Kafka’s ‘legalese’ is alchemically fused with a prose of great verve and intense readability."—James Rolleston, professor of Germanic languages and literatures, Duke University"Breon Mitchell’s translation is an accomplishment of the highest order that will honor Kafka far into the twenty-first century."—Walter Abish, author of How German Is ItWritten in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers. This new edition is based upon the work of an international team of experts who have restored the text, the sequence of chapters, and their division to create a version that is as close as possible to the way the author left it.In his brilliant translation, Breon Mitchell masterfully reproduces the distinctive poetics of Kafka's prose, revealing a novel that is as full of energy and power as it was when it was first written. Franz Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague, where he lived most of his life. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories, including "The Metamorphosis", "The Judgment", and "The Stoker". He died in 1924, before completing any of his full-length novels. At the end of his life, Kafka asked his lifelong friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work. Brod overrode those wishes. Paperback304 pagesRandom House, 1999Originally published in 19255.2 x 0.6 x 8 inchesISBN 9780805209990Fiction

Shop at Neue Literature View All