German lit

[March Hare]

Looking to read some Germans this fall. Any recommendations (he asks knowingly) for 19th or 20th c. German novels? Other than Doctor Faustus, my bookshelf is empty. I started Berlin Alexanderplatz but got sidetracked. I wonder if it's worth picking up again.

[weltanschauung]

e.t.a. hoffmann!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stlukesguild]

I have a good amount of German literature... but not a lot of novels, per se. Obvious suggestions would include the other masterwork by Thomas Mann, Magic Mountain. From Hermann Hesse the key works might be The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf, and Narcissus and Goldmund. Josef Roth has The Radetsky March. Hermann Broch has Sleepwalkers and The Death of Virgil. Don't forget Rilke's poetic "novel" The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. From Kafka you have The Castle and The Trial. From Gunter Grass you certainly want The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, Dog Years, and Local Anesthetic. From Heinrich Boll, Billiards at Half Past Nine and The Clown. The novel doesn't seem to have attained the status in Germany as it did in Russia, France, and Britain in the 19th century. The novella and short stories seem to be more favored... or at least so it appears. In these forms you should check out the tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann, Kleist, Gottfried Keller, Adelbert Stifter, Robert Walser, Max Frisch, Friederich Durrenmatt, and of course Kafka, Mann, and Hesse.

[March Hare]

The novel doesn't seem to have attained the status in Germany as it did in Russia, France, and Britain in the 19th century.

Someone once remarked that the shadow of Goethe scared all the would-be German novelists into philosophy.

[Pryderi Agni]

Someone once remarked that the shadow of Goethe scared all the would-be German novelists into philosophy.

...Which is totally implausible, because the Germans have written great works. Look at Kafka and Mann, not to mention Brecht. Besides, Voltaire cast a massive shadow, but French literature is still strong.

My recoms are simple: try Goethe's earlies, Elective Affinities and The Sorrows of Young Werther, his finest Sturm und Drang hors d'ouevres. Also try Kafka's Metamorphosis and Hesse's Siddhartha, a history of the Buddha.

[kiki1982]

Early Romantic/Sturm und Drang:

Goethe: The Sorrows of young Wherther and his Faust in 2 parts

Heinrich von Kleist: The Marquess von O (originally De Marquise von O) It is the first true novel in German Literature according to my professor.

Schiller is also part of this, but he mainly wrote poetry and plays like Wallenstein and The Robbers

Romantic and Biedermeier:

Ludwig Tieck: Blonde Eckbert (originally Der blonde Eckbert), it is a kind of fairytale-novel.

Late Romantic:

The brothers Grimm's Fairytales (if you can find he original, unchildified translation) of ether the 1810s or the 1830s.

ETA Hoffmann (as Weltanschauung pointed out). He wrote kind of early romantic things with a lot of feeling, but his works do not tend to be long.

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer: The Holy (originally Der Heilige)

Wilhelm Raabe: The Chronicles of the Sperlinggasse. (Re-published by Javob Corvinus) (Gasse = an alley) (originally Die Chronik der Sperlinggasse. Herausgegeben von Jacob Corvinus)

Theodor Fontane: Mrs Jenny Treibel, a novel from Berlin society (originally Frau Jenny Treibel, ein Roman aus der Berliner Gesellschaft); Effi Briest

(with thanks to my German literature course. I can't remember half of them...:redface:)

Heinrich Böll (won the Nobel Prize) and Günther Grass The Tin Drum (or something in that sense, originally Der/Die Blechtrommel)

Thomas Mann also wrote Death in Venice

Franz Kafka The Trial

[Desolation]

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke is really good, and of course just about anything by Goethe.

I read that in the 19th century, German philosophers were often read as literature, so when thinking of German lit, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Hegel, and Marx come to mind.

[Barbarous]

Don't forget Wittgenstein if we begin counting philosophers. But yes, The Tin Drum is an incredible novel, I certainly recommend it.

How is Berlin Alexanderplatz? I'm getting the impression that since you were distracted it wasn't worthwhile...

[March Hare]

But yes, The Tin Drum is an incredible novel, I certainly recommend it.
I think here is where I'll start. It seems to be highly regarded. It's always been in the back of my mind to read it.


How is Berlin Alexanderplatz? I'm getting the impression that since you were distracted it wasn't worthwhile...
No, no. I can't make a judgement for good or ill. I was only about 20 pages into it when another book caught my eye and I never got back to BA.


Schiller is also part of this, but he mainly wrote poetry and plays like Wallenstein and The Robbers
The Robbers is great. Love the ending.

[Emil Miller]

I see Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain has already been mentioned but don't forget his masterpiece Buddenbrooks. I second Joseph Roth's Radetzky March and would also suggest anything by Arthur Schnitzler whose very readable short stories offer the reader a marvellous evocation of fin de siecle Vienna and penetrating insight into human psychology.

[FanofdeBeauvoir]

Schopenhauer.

[Madame X]

There’s also poor neglected Stefan Zweig (I mean, Austrian is practically German, right? :nod:). Schachnovelle (Chess Story), for one, is short, sweet, and psychologically singular. Good stuff.

[Nothronychus]

Someone had mentioned the Sorrows of Young Werther. It's one of my top 5 favorites.

[stlukesguild]

Schopenhauer...

Not a novel... not even fiction.

[FanofdeBeauvoir]

Schopenhauer...

Not a novel... not even fiction.

He's an author. A good one too, so why not check his works?

[stlukesguild]

No reason... except that the OP specifically stressed novels.

[promtbr]

Love German literary fiction and most I would have recommended have been covered...

Keep in mind the author's mentioned wrote in German, but they did'nt all reside in Germany: Hesse- Switzerland, Stifter and Zweig Austrian, and Kafka- Czech Republic

Zwieg is being re-discovered and his translated books are being published by NYRB books. Grass is Godlike...Hoffmann and Kleist are freaking amazing!

Should not overlook Austrian Herman Broch's The Sleepwalkers (a trilogy but published as one book) Robert Musil's A Man Without Qualities

And two groundbreaking Post War bigs Arno Schmidt. and Austrian Thomas Bernhard (who was deserving of the Nobel but died at 50ish) Anything by these two are not read for entertainment, or the Airport book read.

Austrian poet/novelist Ingeborg Bachman's Malina is a masterpiece. She was more noted for her poetry.

Check out also Uwe Johnson- Speculations About Jakob and WG Sebald's Rings of Saturn and Vertigo


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[stlukesguild]

Ingmar Bachman's Malina is a masterpiece. She was more noted for her poetry.

I'll assume you meant to type Ingeborg Bachmann... and yes... a wonderful poet.