The Ten Greatest German Novellas

Recently, in reviewing Jan Brandt's Gegen die Welt, I complained that the author had gone on for nearly 1000 pages, when he could have written a better novel with less than half the length. It appears that 1000-page novels are becoming a trend among German authors.  Susanna Kippenberger, reporting on the Leipziger Buchmesse in the Tagesspiegel, notes that recent books are suffering from Elephantiasis:

"Die Literatur der Gegenwart scheint unter Elefantitis zu leiden. Dazu muss man sich nur mal die Neuerscheinungen dieses Frühjahrs anschauen – Chris Kraus’ 1200 Seiten, Miljenko Jergovićs 1000 Seiten, Marlon James’ 864. Oder in die aktuelle „Spiegel“-Bestsellerliste gucken. 576 Seiten, 592, 688, 624, 960, 608, 560, 640, 560, 1264. Und das sind keinewegs lauter Big Macs, die man einfach so in sich reinstopft, sondern die Werke literarischer Champions wie T.C. Boyle, Juli Zeh, Zsuzsa Bánk und Paul Auster. Für „Die Erfindung der Roten Armee Fraktion durch einen manisch-depressiven Teenager im Sommer 1969“ (832 Seiten) erhielt Frank Witzel 2015 den Deutschen Buchpreis, im Jahr darauf bekam Guntram Vesper für „Frohburg“ (1008 Seiten) den Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse."

This is somewhat perplexing, since the one fiction genre where German writers have traditionally excelled beyond their English, French and Russian counterparts is the Novelle. There have been so many great German novellas that an entire branch of Germanistik is devoted to developing a comprehensive theory of the novella.  Attempts to formulate a theory of the novella date back to Goethe ("unerhörte Begebenheit" - the extraordinary event), Tieck ("Wendepunkt" - turning point), Heyse ("Falkentheorie" - falcon theory).  I always thought the best definition of the Novelle was from the Swiss literary historian Emil Staiger: „Eine Novelle ist nichts anderes als eine Erzählung mittlerer Länge."  - a work of fiction shorter than a novel but longer than a short story -and can be read in one sitting. 

Here is my list of the Ten Greatest Novellen  in the German language, arranged by date of publication - although the greatest Novelle  - Michael Kohlhaas - also happens to be oldest (published in 1810).  All of these belong in the canon of great Weltliteratur - and this only scratches the surface. 

1. Michael Kohlhass  - Heinrich von Kleist
2. Die Judenbuche  -    Annette von Droste-Hülshoff
3. Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag - Eduard Mörike 
4. Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe - Gottfried Keller
5. Schach von Wuthenow - Theodor Fontane
6. Der Schimmelreiter - Theodor Storm
7. Leutnant Gustl - Arthur Schnitzler
8. Der Tod in Venedig - Thomas Mann
9. Katz und Maus - Günter Grass
10. Die Entdeckung der Currywurst - Uwe Timm

See also my list of the Ten Greatest German Novels.

Comments

[Hattie]

Schimmelreiter. Read it as an adolescent and it has a special power over me.

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