This is November. And it is time for German literature month 🙂 Hosted by Caroline from Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Lizzy from Lizzy’s Literary Life. You can find the homepage of this challenge with introductory posts, information on readalongs and giveaways, the list of participants and potential books that will be read, here.
I wrote a post on the books that I wanted to read for German Literature Month. As it always happens, after one makes plans, I changed the plan when November arrived. I had two short story collections which had German stories and I decided to read them first. One was a collection of German stories and it had creations by many of the masters there. The second one was a collection of short stories from across the world and it had a German section. I started reading the stories on Tuesday and finished the last story today.
The Stories
These are the stories I read (by alphabetical order of the author’s last name).
Flagman Thiel by Gerhart Hauptmann – Flagman Thiel works in a bunk in a remote forest and his job is to open the gate and show the flag when the train passes. He has a son by his first wife whom his current wife treats badly. But Thiel likes being left alone and allowing the house to be run by his wife. How long can he ignore the unfair situation at home and bear the pressure in his heart? Unfortunately, something tragic happens and suddenly the taut string in his heart breaks and all hell breaks loose. An interesting story on what happens when a nice guy is pushed to the edge.
Gods in Exile by Heinrich Heine – It tries to picture what Greek gods who were expelled from people’s hearts and minds after the advent of Christianity might be doing today. The last scene where Zeus cries after discovering the status of his beloved temple is very poignant.
Harry’s Loves by Hermann Hesse – It describes Harry’s loves at different times in his life. I suspect that this is an excerpt, probably from Hesse’s novel ‘Steppenwolf’. I suspect that because the name ‘Steppenwolf’ appears many times in the story.
A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka – It is about a country doctor who has to go to a patient’s home urgently, but there is no coach available. Very Kafkaesque, with a lot of fantastic elements open to different kinds of interpretation, and very difficult to understand (atleast for me).
The Married Couple by Franz Kafka – Another typical Kafka story. Though I could connect with the story better. It is about how a couple who are married for many years are connected to each other in a very deep way from different perspectives.
The Naughty Saint Vitalis by Gottfried Keller – Vitalis is an unconventional monk. Every night he goes to disreputable houses, and prays for the beautiful girl who practises her profession there, for the whole night. Most of the time, the concerned girl gets frustrated by Vitalis’ strange behaviour but by morning her heart has changed and she reforms her ways and joins a convent. But then Vitalis meets a girl, whom he is not able to change despite his repeated visits. And more interestingly, Vitalis has a young admirer who lives in the neighbourhood, who wants to change him. What happens next is the rest of the story.
The Earthquake in Chile by Heinrich von Kleist – It is about two lovers whose love is not accepted by their elders and society and how an earthquake, which brings misery to everyone, brings them back together and brings happiness and joy to them. And how all this taken away again at the blink of an eye.
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler – I didn’t know this when I read it, but I discovered that ‘Darkness at Noon’ is a novel. What I read appears to be an excerpt from the last part of the novel. It is about the execution of a prisoner in a country which is very similar to the former Soviet Union of the 1930s-40s and his thoughts on the hours preceding his execution. It was very poignant with beautiful passages. Also, isn’t that such a wonderful title – beautiful, dark, terrifying – making us want to find out what happens in the story.
Three Minute Novel by Heinrich Mann – The narrator describes his love life in a kaleidoscope of quickly transitioning images.
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann – A writer decides to get out of his comfort zone and long work days and tries to do something adventurous – that is he goes on a holiday. He goes to Venice. He notices a Polish family staying at the same hotel as him and one of his chief pleasures is to observe what they are doing everyday. He is particularly attracted to the young son and at one point falls in love with that beautiful boy. This unexpected sway of his heart makes him question his past and his life.
Disorder and Early Sorrow by Thomas Mann – Describes a party in a professor’s house and how a young girl experiences the first stirrings and pangs of love in her heart.
How Old Timofei Died Singing by Rainer Maria Rilke – Old Timofei sings in his village and is the best singer among all the neighbouring villages. In Timofei’s profession there is a tradition that all the songs that the father knows are taught to the son who will carry on the legacy. But Timofei’s son has had a quarrel with him, married a beautiful girl and left home to live in another city. Timofei is getting old and there is no one to whom he wants to pass on his songs and his legacy. Will Timofei’s son return back? Or will Timofei take away all his beautiful songs with him?
The Tale of the Hands of God by Rainer Maria Rilke – What were the Hands of God doing when man was created? This story tries to answer that.
The Sport of Destiny by Johann von Schiller – It is about a young man who becomes the prince’s favourite and how that impacts his life and career and the ups and downs he has. The story painted a picture of how capricious destiny is.
The Dead are Silent by Arthur Schnitzler – A man and married woman are having an affair. During one of their clandestine meetings, the coach they are travelling is overturned, overthrowing the man and the woman. The woman is not hurt but the man falls unconscious. What does the woman do? Does she summon help and wait for it to arrive and risk her honour? Or does she abandon the man she loves and escape? The story shows how a woman tackles this difficult and very real question. Also, isn’t that such an awesome title? One of my two most favourite titles out of the stories I read.
Immensee by Theodor Storm – An achingly beautiful and heartbreaking love story of two childhood sweethearts, one of whom ends up marrying a different person, and what happens when they meet again later in life.
The Burning of Egliswyl by Frank Wedekind – It is about a young prisoner who narrates his tale on how the burning love in his heart made him commit arson which took him to prison.
Kong at the Seaside by Arnold Zweig – Very short story about how one has to make difficult decisions when one is poor. Simple story with a powerful theme, involving a boy and a dog called Kong.
Moonbeam Alley by Stefan Zweig – It describes the adventures of a gentleman in a port city in the disreputable alleys near the harbour. It is a story about how people try to own those they love and how they inflict pain on those they are trying to own and how when they lose the person they love, they pine for what they have lost and try to get it back.
What I think
So, what do I think about these stories? Which ones are my favourites? I will try to answer the second question first.
I think the prize for my most favourite story would go to either ‘Immensee’ by Theodor Storm or ‘Darkness at Noon’ by Arthur Koestler. ‘Immensee’ is an achingly beautiful heartbreaking love story. It reminded me of Ivan Turgenev’s stories – like ‘First Love’ and ‘Spring Torrents’ – which always make me cry. ‘Immensee’ evokes beautiful images of childhood love and how it evolves across the years and takes many strange turns. Storm is a wonderful new discovery for me. His picture in Wikipedia looks forbidden, but going by his story, he seems to have had a passionate heart. I want to read more of his works. Caroline recommended his novella ‘The Rider on the White Horse’ and I want to read that next. ‘Darkness at Noon’ is a novel and what I read is an excerpt and so I don’t know whether it counts. Also Arthur Koestler seems to be Hungarian or British depending on the way we look at things, but he wrote in German during his initial days. I loved the fact that it was difficult to pigeon-hole him in one country – it just showed that nationality is not the rigid thing that it seems to be these days. So, I was not sure whether his story would count as a German story, but for practical purposes I am counting it so. Though I read only an excerpt of the last part of the book, it had some beautiful passages. Like this one :
Since the bell of silence had sunk over him, he was puzzling over certain questions to which he would have liked to find an answer before it was too late. They were rather naïve questions; they concerned the meaning of suffering, or, more exactly, the difference between suffering which made sense and senseless suffering. Obviously only such suffering made sense as was inevitable; that is, as was rooted in biological fatality. On the other hand, all suffering with a social origin was accidental, hence pointless and senseless. The sole object of revolution was the abolition of senseless suffering. But it had turned out that the removal of this second kind of suffering was only possible at the price of a temporary enormous increase in the sum total of the first. So the question now ran : Was such an operation justified? Obviously it was, if one spoke in the abstract of “mankind”; but, applied to “man” in the singular, to the cipher 2-4, the real human being of bone and flesh and blood and skin, the principle led to absurdity.
And this one :
Sometimes he would respond unexpectedly to a tune, or even the memory of a tune, or of the folded hands of the Pietà, or of certain scenes of his childhood. As if a tuning-fork had been struck, there would be answering vibrations, and once this had started a state would be produced which the mystics called “ecstasy” and saints “contemplation”; the greatest and soberest of modern psychologists had recognized this state as a fact and called it the “oceanic sense.” And, indeed, one’s personality dissolved as a grain of salt in the sea; but at the same time the infinite sea seemed to be contained in the grain of salt. The grain could no longer be localized in time and space. It was a state in which thought lost its direction and started to circle, like the compass needle at the magnetic pole; until finally it cut loose from its axis and traveled freely in space, like a bunch of light in the night; and until it seemed that all thoughts and all sensations, even pain and joy itself, were only the spectrum lines of the same ray of light, disintegrating in the prism of consciousness.
I would make these two stories my joint “most favourite”.
Which are my other favourites? I liked ‘How Old Timofei Died Singing’ by Rainer Maria Rilke, especially for its first page. My favourite passage on the first page, which I found absolutely magical, went like this :
“Where did you get the story you told me last time?” he finally asked. “Out of a book?”
“Yes,” I answered sadly, “the historians have kept it buried there, since it died; that is not so very long ago. Only a hundred years since, it lived – carelessly, for sure – on many lips. But the words that people use now, those heavy words one cannot sing, were its enemies and took from it one mouth after another, so that in the end it lived, most secluded and in poverty, on one pair of dry lips, as on a miserable widow’s portion. And there it died, leaving no heirs, and was, as I have already said, buried with all honors in a book where others of its family already lay.”
I also liked ‘Gods in Exile’ by Heinrich Heine, for showing a different perspective on what Greek gods might be doing today and ‘The Earthquake in Chile’ by Heinrich von Kleist, for its depiction on how big events which bring misery to everyone can bring happiness to a family. I liked ‘The Dead are Silent’ by Arthur Schnitzler – isn’t that such an amazing title – because it was very poignant and it asked some difficult questions on life and ‘Kong on the Seaside’ by Arnold Zweig for asking a different set of difficult questions in a few pages. ‘Moonbeam Alley’ by Stefan Zweig was wonderful because of its depiction of the cruelties in everyday life. All of these will be a close second favourite for me.
I somehow never got along with Thomas Mann. His ‘Death in Venice’ was quite difficult to read as I found it quite ponderous most of the time and I had to plod along for a long while with a lot of determination to finish the story. At around eighty-odd pages, it was the longest of all the stories I read, and it was also quite difficult to read. Interestingly for a story which I found tough to read, there were a lot of beautiful passages strewn throughout the story like beautiful pearls. Like this :
The horizon was unbroken. The sea, empty, like an enormous disk, lay stretched under the curve of the sky. But in empty inarticulate space our senses lose also the dimensions of time, and we slip into the incommensurate.
And this :
The experiences of a man who lives alone and in silence are both vaguer and more penetrating than those of people in society; his thoughts are heavier, more odd, and touched always with melancholy. Images and observations which could easily be disposed of by a glance, a smile, an exchange of opinion, will occupy him unbearably, sink deep into the silence, become full of meaning, become life, adventure, emotion. Loneliness ripens the eccentric, the daringly and estrangingly beautiful, the poetic. But loneliness also ripens the perverse, the disproportionate, the absurd, and the illicit.
The story probably caused some controversy when it was published because of its homoerotic content. When I started reading Thomas Mann’s ‘Disorder and Early Sorrow’, I started thinking ‘Oh no, not again’, because in the story of around 24 pages, nothing much had happened till around 20 pages – in some ways it was similar to ‘Death in Venice’. But then things changed in the last four pages where Mann depicted the first stirrings of love and the first pangs of love-pain in the heart of a young girl, beautifully and skillfully. Those four pages warmed my heart towards him. I don’t think I love Mann yet, but I wouldn’t mind exploring some of his shorter work.
On Kafka – I think he is not for me. I read a graphic novel version of ‘The Metamorphosis’ a few years back and I liked it. I found it dark and strange and powerful. But the two short stories I read here were too strange – especially ‘A Country Doctor’ which I couldn’t understand or interpret and it was too fantastic without any clear demarcation between the events which were happening in the story and the leading character’s imaginary fantasies. ‘The Married Couple’ was a little bit better, because it was more realistic and was a short story in the classic sense. Maybe certain kinds of Kafka stories will appeal to me, but I don’t think he will become one of my favourite writers.
I want to explore more works of Theodor Storm, Rainer Maria Rilke, Heinrich von Kleist, Stefan Zweig, Arthur Schnitzler and Arthur Koestler.
Have you read any of the above stories or books by any of the above writers? What do you think about them?
This is a great and thorough post! This spoke to me: Loneliness ripens the eccentric, the daringly and estrangingly beautiful, the poetic. But loneliness also ripens the perverse, the disproportionate, the absurd, and the illicit.
I keep a quote book and have many quotes from Rainer Maria Rilke and vaguely remember studying a little of his works in college but have never explored it on my own.
Glad to know that you liked this post, Linda 🙂 Glad to know that you liked that quote too. It is so beautiful, isn’t it?
Wonderful to know that you have quotes by Rainer Maria Rilke in your quote book. I envy you for studying his works in college 🙂 I want to try reading some of his books.
What a wonderful review. And so many wonderfuls stories. I wish others will find something here. Your comment on my blog made Lizzy chnage her reading plans. She can’t do a German Literature Month without readins Storm and I’m very tempted to follow that example. I was going to read Mörike but now I might read Der Schimmelreiter instead. It fits the season. Immensee is a heartbreaking story.
I think the authors you liked bets are the same I like best. I like Wedeking as a playwright.
Kafka isn’t exactly an author I like. I like Thomas Mann but he is better in the longer form. I hope you get to read more of Rilke, Zweig and Schnitzler. I want to read Koestler.
Wonderful to know that both you and Lizzy are planning to read Storm now 🙂 I can’t wait to compare notes with you, on Der Schimmelreiter! I will add Wedekind to the list of playwrights I want to explore. Based on your recommendation I already have Arthur Schnitzler on that list. I also have Friedrich Dürrenmatt on that list.
Which book of Mörike were you planning to read? I read his ‘Mozart’s Journey to Prague’ last year and loved it!
Maybe I will try one of Thomas Mann’s longer works. Thanks for the suggestion. His prose and ideas are very beautiful. Hope you enjoy exploring Koestler.
Vishy, yes, that is the Mörike I will read.
I hope to be able to read the Schimmelreiter but I’m not sure at all.
I’m looking forward to your other reviews.
Hope you enjoy reading ‘Mozart’s Journey to Prague’ and ‘Der Schimmelreiter’! Happy Reading!
Wow, I want to read all the stories you wrote about here but “Gods in Exile” is the one that intrigued me the most because you mentioned it before.
Hope you get to read these stories and like them, Delia. If you like reading online, you can find ‘Gods in Exile’ here.
Thank you, Vishy!
Wow – Vishy’s history of German literature all in one post. You certainly hit the classics there, Vishy. Which anthology were you reading?
Storm has another fan – terrific! He is simply wonderful.
Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice is a sticky subject. Who was the translator? The Lowe-Porter translation is quite old, ponderous and in places, inaccurate. There have been a couple of new ones in recent times which I’d love to get my hands on to for comparison purposes.
Thanks for stopping by, Lizzy 🙂 Thanks also for hosting German Literature Month with Caroline 🙂
I read an anthology called ‘Great German short novels and stories’ – it is edited with an introduction by Victor Lange. It appears to be similar to this anthology, but the one I have has only twelve stories. The second anthology I read was called ‘Great Short Stories of the World’ which had a German section.
Storm is so wonderful! I am so happy and glad to have discovered him!
I am not sure who is the translator of ‘Death in Venice’. I will check it and write back to you. It is definitely not a new translation, though. Maybe I will try to read a newer translation sometime. I read somewhere that Michael Henry Heim (who translated Bernhard Schlink’s ‘The Reader’ and other works of his) has done an award-winning translation of ‘Death in Venice’.
[…] Anthology 1 (Hauptmann, Heine, Kafka, Keller, Kleist, Koestler, Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann, Rilke, Schiller, Schnitzler, Storm, Wedekind, Zweig) Share this:TwitterFacebookEmailLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. […]
Wow, Vishy! Where do you get these books from? 😦
I actually got it in a sale, when I dug deep into a pile of books that no one was interested in. It is interesting how many fascinating treasures we can discover in neglected piles of books 🙂
That is one very thorough post 😉
I’m a big fan of Kafka (on whom I’ll be posting – in a somewhat unorthodox manner – next week), and I love Storm, Mann and Keller. Loved ‘Bahnwärter Thiel’ too (another future review!). I’m hoping to try some Stefan Zweig soon and, of course some Kleist for the anniversary 🙂 Kafka’s shorter fiction isn’t for everyone – they can be a hit and miss, but stories like ‘Der Hungerkünstler’ and ‘Der Bau’ are more substantial.
Thanks for stopping by, Tony 🙂 Glad to know that you liked the post. Great to know that you like Kafka. Can’t wait to read your unorthodox post on him – it will be a great homage to Kafka, I think. Hope you enjoy exploring Stefan Zweig – he is really wonderful!
Wow, you’ve been busy, Vishy! It’s strange – that Hauptmann story sounds really, really familiar, but I can’t remember actually reading it. I’ll have to have a look at it and try to remind myself. Good to see from Caroline’s site that you’re going to read Effi Briest too – look forward to hearing your thoughts on that!
Nice to know that the Hauptmann story rings a bell, Andrew. Hope you get to read it and like it. I could get a copy of ‘Effi Briest’ only a few days back and so I am hoping to join in the readalong this week. Happy Reading!
Well done, Vishy, you read some great stories! I never could get along with Mann either but I have to admit I never tried again after being thoroughly tortured in school 😀
I’ve actually found that Kafka grows on you, but as you know I’m not especially fond of German literature (maybe the pedantic way in which we read the classics on school is still too fresh in my mind).
Ha, ha, ha! I can understand how it must have been at school. I think if our teachers let us read literature like story books we will love it. But unfortunately because most of the time, literature is taught in a pedantic way, the fun part is lost.
I will try reading Kafka after a while. Maybe there are some stories of his that I will like.
May I chime in with my own WOW, BLIMEY a fantastic post & thanks I’d forgotten all about Koestler’s Darkness, I adored that book when I read it a good few years ago. thanks for reminding of it.
Thanks for stopping by, Parrish 🙂 Wonderful to know that you read Koestler’s ‘Darkness at Noon’ and liked it very much. I hope to read the whole book sometime.
[…] Vishy (Vishy’s Blog) has reviewed a wide range of short stories and novellas. A really wide range. Both Lizzy and myself were stunned. This is pretty much an introduction to the most important German writers. A Wide Range of German Short Stories […]
You really are inspiring me to come up with some Germans to read. i like the idea of the one with the new wife who is horrible to the son! I also like your comment about nationality not being a rigid thing . . . .very interesting
Hope you get to explore German writers, Sarah. Their books are diverse and really interesting.
That’s a really thorough list Vishy, and some great looking books. Have you read Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck? I was extremely impressed by that one. Very powerful for a short novel. My review is here: http://mybookyear.co.uk/visitation-by-jenny-erpenbeck
Thanks for writing about ‘Visitation’ by Jenny Erpenbeck, Graham. I haven’t read the book but have heard of the author. I just read your post on this book and it looks wonderful from your description. I will look for it.
[…] the authors whom I discovered last week, first, before tackling some German crime fiction. I loved Theodor Storm’s ‘Immensee’ when I read it last week. So, this week I thought I will read Storm’s ‘The Rider on the White […]
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[…] But The Dykemaster aka The Rider on the White Horse is equally good. Vishy reviewed them recently here and here and Lizzy has written a review of a lesser known collection Carsten the […]
[…] Vishy (Vishy’s Blog) for an absolutely astonishing post that can be read like an introduction to the most important writers of German Literature German Short Stories. […]
[…] Grass (The Tin Drum) Hammesfahr (The Sinner) Hauptmann (Before Daybreak /Flagman Thiel (1) (2) (3)/On Characterisation) Heine (An Apparation in The Sea/Gods in Exile) Hermann (Summerhouse, Later) […]
[…] Immensee by Theodor Storm […]
[…] enjoyed – Heinrich von Kleist, E.T.A.Hoffmann, Eduard Mörike, Theodor Fontane and Theodor Storm (‘Immensee’ is one of my alltime favourites) – are all mentioned in the […]