Please recomend me german authors

[CarpeNixta]

Hi all:
This saturday I'll go to the FIL (Feria Internacional del Libro or International Book Fair)... this year the guest is Germany.

I'm asking for any suggestion in authors because every year I go and buy the books I find interesting no matter the country, but this year I want to make all my purchases of German authors.

All your help is very appreciated.

[TheFifthElement]

I'd love to go to a book festival
I haven't read many German authors, but could recommend Herman Hesse and hear that both Thomas Mann and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe are excellent writers. I have works by both, but not quite got around to those yet.

[kiki1982]

If you like early romantic melodrama, go for Goethe, Friedrich (von) Schiller, Heinrich von Kleist, Jean Paul, Hölderlin, Ludwig Tieck.

High romantic Eduard Mörike,

Late romantic ETA Hoffmann (The Golden Bowl)

Realism: Wilhelm Raabe, Theodor Fontane

That's how far my anthology from uni goes , but I would second Hesse and Thomas Mann.

And of ocurse their great pride recently: Herta Müller.

I don't know whether they have all been translated, though, that may be somwhat of a disappointment... (unless you know German of course)

[PoeticPassions]

I also will say Goethe (I loved Elective Affinities), Mann and Hesse.

A good Austrian author (I know, I know, but close enough) is Rainer Maria Rilke.

[CarpeNixta]

Thank you all, I noted all the authors you gave me, they sound very interesting.

And of ocurse their great pride recently: Herta Müller.

She was here the past week with Mario Vargas Llosa, they gave a conference, I only had her in my list yesterday.

I don't know whether they have all been translated, though, that may be somwhat of a disappointment... (unless you know German of course)

I understand if read it, I couldn't learn how to pronounce well the "R" and I really hope they brought books in German (usually you can find some in the original language)

[mortalterror]

One early German author which I don't think has been offered previously is Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Three romantic era writers that haven't been previously named but are excellent authors nonetheless are Georg Buchner, Heinrich Heine, and Novalis. Gottfried Benn, Bertolt Brecht, Erich Maria Remarque, and Gunter Grass were all pretty good in the twentieth century. Paul Celan and Franz Kafka were German-language authors but not of German nationality. Hope that helps fill out your list.

[kiki1982]

If you like poetry, I'd second Rilke and maybe you could try Heinrich Heine. He is teriibly funny at times (in a rather bitingly sarcastic way, though).

I think you mean that beta type thing?

The beta thing is an s, also called a 'ringel-s' or an 'esszet' (although the name it is called probably depends on the region) after the older way of writing it 'sz' (I think) like it is still done in Hungarian for the s (our sign 's' being pronounced as a 'sh'). It is just a very pure and very pronounced 's', the very closed and tense s you can produce.

Before the 90s, it used to be written after short and long vowels, but the new spelling changed around 1996, now it is only written after long vowels like in 'Straße'. So 'muß' has changed into 'muss' and 'Schloß' into 'Schloss'. The easy thing is that now you know how to pronounce stuff which you didn't before .

However, if you don't know the shortcut on your keyboard (I think that should be alt-225), don't have a word document to readily copy it from if the shortcut doesn't work (like me now), you can always substitute it with 'ss'. Like you can substitute an Umlaut (the two dots above a vowel) with an e (the older way of spelling it).

Ok, I think that's enough .

Oh, I forgot some modern ones though:

Günter Grass (Die Blechtrommel and others) and Heinrich Böll.

Herta Müller writes in German but is not German, though that makes for a 'freer' treatment of the war).

[AjaxAscendant]

Buy Goethe and Rilke blindfolded. Faust and All Quiet on the Western Front are GIANTS in German literature. You could also try Grass, but I don't recommend him; my dad's a huge fan of his, I'm not.

[Kyriakos]

Not a great fan of german literature (i do not place Kafka in it either) but i agree on E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Thomas Mann

[thelastmelon]

I really like Vladimir Kaminer. He is a Russian-born German writer. I've read his Russian Disco and Militärmusik, and really enjoyed them both.

[CarpeNixta]

thank you all for your suggestions, I had a blast!!!

I strayed a little buying some books from Ruben Dario, Savater and Katayama Kyoichi... but I came out with books from:

Goethe: Faust, Werter and Hermand & Dorotea.
Hesse: Steppenwolf & Sidartha
Kleist: Narrations (book of short stories)
Rilke: Works (also an anthology of his works)
Schiller: Poemas Filosoficos & Poesia Ingenua y Poesia sentimental (don't know the english names)
Mann: The Magic Mountain
Mûller: El Hombre es un gran faisan en el mundo & En tierras bajas (don't know the english names)

And also a Freebie!!! a book in German about the imprint, as far I understand until now it's about Gutenberg and the print of the first book

Ayax, Kiriakos & TheLastMelon, I added your suggestions too, I'll besearching for them soon

[CarpeNixta]

Kiki1932 thanks I found it "ß" Danke （＾ｖ＾）

[Jack of Hearts]

Wow. You all know quite a bit about German authors.

This reader found the second half of 'Steppenwolf' enormously difficult to understand on any analytic level. Plus he had a gazillion questions about the Immortals, but nevermind- he read it a long time ago.

Uh, not sure if this is your shtick, but if you read in German, Nietzsche was supposed to be an amazing prose stylist (certainly some of this carries over to English translations). If metaethics or existentialism isn't your thing you might do better with his Ecce Homo.

This reader has recently developed an interest in Mann's The Magic Mountain. That seems to be a seminal work in 20th century canon, so it could be worth taking a peek at.

As for 'Goat,' all his stuff is free so that's awesome. He even wrote an autobiography.







J

EDIT: Day late, dollar short?

[Can]

I recommedn you to read Sigmound Freud

[kiki1982]

Kafka is one of my favourites but you need to like him.

I still have Mann's Zauberberg (Magic Mountain) on my 'to-read' pile, but I don't seem to be able to pluck up the courage (German goes somewhat more slowly than Englis or French).