The volume under review is one of a new twelve-volume paperback history of German literature published by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag in Munich. The undertaking as a whole offers chronological coverage from the Middle Ages to 1990, periodized as follows: Mittelalter, Humanismus, Reformationszeit, Barock (vol. 1); Aufklärung und Empfindsamkeit, Sturm und Drang (vol. 2); Die Weimarer Klassik, Goethes Spätwerk (vol. 3); Zwischen Klassik und Romantik: Hölderlin, Kleist, Jean Paul (vol. 4); Romantik (vol. 5); Frührealismus (vol. 6); Realismus und Naturalismus (vol. 7); Wege in die Moderne 1890–1918 (vol. 8); Weimarer Republik 1918–1933 (vol. 9); Drittes Reich und Exil 1933–1945 (vol. 10); Nachkriegszeit 1945–1968 (vol. 11); Gegenwart 1968–1990 (vol. 12). The writers of the individual volumes are Erika and Ernst von Borries (vols. 1–5), Annemarie and Wolfgang van Rinsum (vols. 6–7), Ingo Leiß and Hermann Stadler (vols. 8–9), Paul Riegel and Wolfgang van Rinsum (vol. 10), and Heinz Forster and Paul Riegel (vols. 11–12).

The project as a whole is intended to appeal to a popular rather than a scholarly audience and to demonstrate that literary history is not mere academic Muff von tausend Jahren, but rather “daß sie lebendig, erzählerisch und unterhaltend sein kann.” Potential readers are assured that “die Lektüre erfordert kein spezielles Vorwissen” and that the presentation will be “zwar auf der Höhe der wissenschaftlichen Kenntnisse, doch ohne Kompliziertheit und akribische Weitschweifigkeit” (2). There are two major organizational aims. The first, unsurprisingly, is to provide a general overview of each literary period in the social and cultural context of its time. The second, and the more distinctive characteristic of the project, is to provide detailed individual treatment of the major literary works of the period in question.

The literary history of the Weimar Republic is thus presented in six chapters. The first provides a social and cultural “Einführung in die Epoche” (11–48), the second discusses the role of “Die Literatur in einer demokratischen Massengesellschaft” (49–54), and the third, “Einführung in die Literatur der Epoche” (55–78), characterizes the major intersecting literary currents of the time. The remaining three chapters contain the real meat of the matter, devoted respectively to “Dominanz der Prosa” (79–284), “Drama und Theater” (285–346), and “Lyrik” (347–406).

To take just a few examples of the way individual major works are treated, we find some fourteen or fifteen pages devoted in the long chapter on narrative to each of Berlin Alexanderplatz, Das Schloß, Die Schlafwandler, Der Steppenwolf, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, and Der Zauberberg. In each case, the discussion involves relevant biographical and socio-political information, a quite detailed Nacherzählung, and an again quite detailed interpretation, the latter deftly incorporating a number of generous extracts from the work. Readers are thus offered at least some suggestion of the flavour of the literary work under discussion – and consequently also some degree of encouragement to turn eventually to those works themselves at first hand rather than merely making do with the convenient synopses offered.

The concept is an attractive one, and for the most part it works very well. Works and writers considered of lesser overall importance do not receive the same degree of attention, of course, but neither are they ignored. On average, some five to seven pages are devoted to such works as Radetzkymarsch, Jud Süß, Die Letzte am Schafott, Kleiner Mann – was nun?, Das kunstseidene Mädchen, Der Aufstand der Fischer von Santa Barbara, In Stahlgewittern, and Im Westen nichts Neues. Writers also discussed at quite generous length in the same chapter include such figures as Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer, Erich Kästner, Ernst Weiß, Oskar Maria Graf, Arnold Zweig, Ludwig Renn, Georg Britting, Leo Perutz, and Hermann Stehr.

The promotional material justifiably describes the dtv Deutsche Literaturgeschichte as “ein neuartiges Lehr- und Lesebuch.” The two authors of the particular volume under review are German Gymnasiallehrer, and the presentational style is well suited to pre-university students as well as the general educated public in the German-speaking countries. In the Canadian context, the volumes should be a welcome addition to lists of recommended reading for German literature courses at the senior undergraduate and graduate level. A significant irritation for the reader still doggedly attached to akribische Weitschweifigkeit is the almost complete lack of bibliographical references for literary and critical materials alike, whether cited or quoted. The tone is consistently brisk and no-nonsense throughout, an appendix concisely defines technical terms, there is a useful index of names, the volume is attractively produced, and the price is a very welcome bonus.

PATRICK O'NEILL Queen’s University