Böcker av Alfred Doblin

The 27th century: beleaguered elites decide to melt the Greenland icecap. Why? - to open up a new continent, for colonisation by the unruly masses. How? - by harvesting the primordial heat of the Earth from Iceland''s volcanoes. Nature fights back, and it all goes horribly wrong...

Of the three great German word-artists of the first half of the 20th century, Alfred Doblin remains the least known. The other two are Thomas Mann, whose attitude towards Doblin ranged from cautious admiration to violent rage; and Berthold Brecht, who learned much from the ideas of his friend Doblin. Anglophone readers have almost no source of information about Doblin, or about the few works already translated into English (Berlin Alexanderplatz perhaps excepted). In Germany, reliable editions of Doblin trickled out between the 1980s (decades after his death in 1957!) and the 2010s. Academic lit. crit. scholars enjoy tackling aspects of his life and output in ways attractive to other scholars. But little has been done to promote Doblin to a wider pool of readers. For the first time, Adventurous Readers provides the inquisitive reader with a map, compass and rations to sustain them as they proceed through the vividly imagined exotic landscapes of his epic novels. Doblin famously declared: 'If a novel can't be cut up into ten pieces like a worm, and each piece lives by itself, it is worthless'. The seventy-two excerpts presented in this book show how he put this maxim into practice. Each deserves close reading, for each brings to life its own vivid world. The excerpts were chosen (from many possible candidates) for their power to entertain, provoke, amuse, cause shudders, and showcase Doblin's mastery of styles, moods, and expressive possibilities. After reading through the selection, or even just dipping in, you should be well prepared to tackle a whole epic novel.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Durch die beiden Kristallfenster der schönen und reichen Kapelle zu München in der Residenz schien die rote Wintersonne. Das schmale Gewölbe, weißer polierter Gips, nahm purpurne Flecken und Linien an, als würde es angehaucht. Über dem Pflaster von Jaspis und Achat auf Kniestühlen der bayrische Hof, spanische Kostüme, gesenkte Schultern, niedergedrückte Köpfe, grauhaarig, weiße Perücken, dunkle gezügelte Locken. Auf der Kanzel zur Linken des großen Silberaltars mit den Reliquien und dem reitenden Ritter Georg ¿ golden, drei Federbüsche am Helm mit Diamanten, Rubinen, Smaragden ¿ sprach in schwarzem geschlossenen Jesuitenrock ein langer glutäugiger Priester; seine Arme fuhren, ohne daß sie es sahen, über sie weg in der drohenden Erregung: ¿Es ist eher erlaubt, Gott zu hassen als zu lieben. Denn Gott steht uns zu fern, zu hoch; es ist eine Sünde, sich ihm zu nahen, selbst in Gedanken. Zu wagen, ihn zu lieben, wie dieses und jenes aus dem Alltag, ihn behängen mit Putz Juwelen und Gold, ihm zarte Gefühle darzubringen: das heißt, ihn erniedrigen. Es ist das Vergehen einer Beleidigung der Göttlichkeit. Kriechen vor ihm, ihm ausweichen, ja ihm grollen: das mag einem Menschen gut anstehen. Ihr habt schon Gott verleugnet in dem Augenblick, wo ihr ihn nicht fürchtet. Er hat euch keine Freundlichkeit gegen sich erlaubt, ist nicht euer Vater, eure Mutter, euer Buhle, euer Herzensbruder. Er ist nicht einmal euer König und Fürst, er lehnt es ab, euer Richter zu sein; sein Gericht ist euch nicht zugänglich; er vollzieht es, wann er will und gegen wen er will. Es läßt sich nicht fassen und erforschen, wer er ist, und darum heißt es nur, Grauen vor ihm empfinden ¿ und so habt ihr getan, was Menschenpflicht ist.

Alfred Döblin (1878-1957) composed his epic trilogy of South America under difficult circumstances of exile. It was accessible on first publication in 1937-38 only outside Germany, and for only a couple of years before war broke out. The first postwar edition, like others of Döblin's works apart from Berlin Alexanderplatz, was little noticed in a Germany traumatised by Nazism and defeat. Neither the pre-war not the first post-war edition explicitly linked the separate volumes as parts of a unitary work. In the 1960s the separate novels were first brought together by Walter Muschg, editor of the first series of Döblin's 'selected works', under the overall title Amazonas. Muschg, however, decided to cut Volume 3 entirely. Not until 1973 did the trilogy first appear in full, in East Germany. Another 15 years passed before the first complete edition in West Germany. So only in the past three or four decades has this work begun to receive the critical attention it richly deserves. The epic is set mainly in South America, but its true focus is Europe. The urgent guiding proposition is: The Nazis did not emerge from nowhere.

Alfred Bruno Döblin (1878 - 1957) zählt zu den führenden Expressionisten und Wegbereitern der literarischen Moderne, dessen bekanntestes Werk "Berlin, Alexanderplatz" zum Kanon der Schullektüre gehört. Döblins Einfluss auf die deutsche Literatur nach 1945 ist enorm. So erhielten Schriftsteller wie Günter Grass, Arno Schmidt oder Wolfgang Koeppen wichtige Anregungen für ihr schriftstellerisches Schaffen. Der vorliegende Band umfasst 12 Erzählungen, von denen die Titelgeschichte als Schlüsseltext des literarischen Expressionismus gilt. "Döblin war nicht nur einer der phantasiegewaltigsten Poeten; er war, zwischen Geburt und Tod, der umhergetriebenste, erfahrenste, vielfältigste, am wenigsten lokale deutsche Repräsentant des Jahrhunderts." (Ludwig Marcuse)Nachdruck der zweiten Auflage aus dem Jahr 1913.

What would it take for a woman to poison her husband? Young couple Elli and Link have been married for a year when Elli meets Gretchen, and the two soon become friends. When Elli confides in her friend about the abuse she suffers at her husband''s hands, they hatch a plan for Elli to escape. But when their efforts prove unsuccessful, the pair begin to discuss a more permanent solution to Elli''s problem: poison. Based on a famous murder trial which took place in Berlin in 1923, this short novel by the master of German modernism, Alfred Doblin, explores questions of moral culpability and societal expectations which remain as relevant today as in the 1920s.

This text forms part of the "German Library" series, which discusses major works of German literature and thought from medieval times to the present. It is a collection of High Modernism among Austrian and German writers.