German Literature Month 2011: All over bar the sighing ….

On a scale of 1 to 10, that was a 100 for me.  A fantastic celebration of German-language literature.  Has the internet seen anything like it? Thank you everyone for your very enthusiatic participation.  It truly was impressive and the master index of authors and works discussed which I will post tomorrow  will show you just how much you [...]

Read Full Post »

German Literature Month Read As You Please: More Stories by Heinrich von Kleist

I surprise myself sometimes but last week I enjoyed The Broken Jug and The Duel so much that I thought I’d read all the stories contained in David Constantine’s anthology of writings by Kleist.  I’d already read and reviewed Michael Kohlhaas, so there were only six needed to fulfill my goal.  Rather than try to unlock [...]

Read Full Post »

German Literature Month: Not the Week IV Wrapup ….

It seems daft to write a wrapup post when there are only 3 days of German Literature Month left.  I’m working on building a master index of all the works we read and written about and it’s not that far short of 100 …. will a final spurt in read as you please week see [...]

Read Full Post »

The Silent Angel – Heinrich Böll

Translated from German by Breon Mitchell If Heinrich Böll had been living now, would he have chosen to self-publish The Silent Angel?  His first novel was never published in his lifetime, ostensibily because the subject of surviving in the  ruins of a carpet-bombed German city was too raw for the German public to digest. I suspect, however, that the [...]

Read Full Post »

Carsten The Trustee and Other Stories – Theodor Storm

My intention for German Literature Month was, apart from the readalongs and Kleist, to discover new authors.  This post should have been a review of something by E T A Hoffman but after Vishy posted about Immensee during week 1, I found it utterly inconceivable that I should spend a month reading German literature and not pick up anything by [...]

Read Full Post »

Wednesdays are Wunderbar: Pick and mix classics!

It’s classics week on German Literature Month, which could be a bit of a problem when it comes to choosing something that hasn’t already been read by most German Literature Month participants.  It could be, but I think we have a solution.  How about picking your own? This week, One World Classics, are offering two [...]

Read Full Post »

Heinrich von Kleist – The Indiscernible Truth

I’ve just read the chapter in Robert E Helbing’s The Major Works of Heinrich von Kleist on Kleist’s Kant crisis and it has confirmed what I’ve always believed. You could drive yourself crazy with philosophy and it could be argued that Heinrich von Kleist did exactly that. He was certainly never the same after reading [...]

Read Full Post »

Testing ….

Q: My last post seems to have corrupted the blog template … will this test post make all well again? A: No but removing the maverick html from the post did. Lesson: Be careful when pasting from emails …..

Read Full Post »

German Literature Month: Effi Briest Readalong Wk 3

It’s the third and final week of our readalong. At this point I’m assuming everyone knows the story so I’m not going to edit any spoilers from my answers. Don’t read on if this is going to bother you. Why do you think Effi kept Crampas’s letters? Because she doesn’t know what fires and stoves [...]

Read Full Post »

Splithead – Julya Rabinowich

Translated from German by Tess Lewis On my scale of terrifying things, Splithead beats Baba Yaga, who lives in a hut perched on chicken legs.  This Russian witch is sometimes helpful and good, which can’t be said of Splithead.  “He doesn’t have a body”, my mother whispered to me …. “He’s invisible”…. “He’s just a [...]

Read Full Post »