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Hans Fallada (1893-1947), one of the most famous German writers of the inter-war era, was largely forgotten outside of his native country after his death.
Institutionalized at age 18 for shooting his roommate in a botched suicide pact, later arrested for embezzlement, theft, and the attempted murder of his own wife, Fallada may deserve to be labeled «a colorful character».
Yet it is for his writings that he ought to be remembered. His works, often telling the story of ordinary people in extreme circumstances, are as important as ever.
Prior to WWII, the novels of German writer Hans Fallada (born Rudolf Ditzen) were international bestsellers. But when Jewish producers in Hollywood made his 1932 novel, Little Man, What Now? into a major motion picture, the rising Nazis began to take note of him. His struggles increased after he refused to join the Party and was denounced by neighbors for “anti-Nazi” sympathies. Unlike many other prominent artists, however, Fallada decided not to flee Germany. By the end of World War II he’d suffered an alcohol-fueled nervous breakdown and was in a Nazi insane asylum, where he nonetheless managed to write—in code—the brilliant subversive novel, The Drinker. After the war, Fallada went on to write Every Man Dies Alone, based on an actual Gestapo file, but he died in 1947 of a morphine overdose, just before it was published.
Luckily, Fallada has recently been “revived” in the English language. Three of his novels were (re-) published in English in March of 2009: Little Man – What Now?, The Drinker, and Every Man Dies Alone (Alone in Berlin).
Having read those I'm looking forward to possibly his magnum opus, Wolf Among Wolves.
Institutionalized at age 18 for shooting his roommate in a botched suicide pact, later arrested for embezzlement, theft, and the attempted murder of his own wife, Fallada may deserve to be labeled «a colorful character».
Yet it is for his writings that he ought to be remembered. His works, often telling the story of ordinary people in extreme circumstances, are as important as ever.
Prior to WWII, the novels of German writer Hans Fallada (born Rudolf Ditzen) were international bestsellers. But when Jewish producers in Hollywood made his 1932 novel, Little Man, What Now? into a major motion picture, the rising Nazis began to take note of him. His struggles increased after he refused to join the Party and was denounced by neighbors for “anti-Nazi” sympathies. Unlike many other prominent artists, however, Fallada decided not to flee Germany. By the end of World War II he’d suffered an alcohol-fueled nervous breakdown and was in a Nazi insane asylum, where he nonetheless managed to write—in code—the brilliant subversive novel, The Drinker. After the war, Fallada went on to write Every Man Dies Alone, based on an actual Gestapo file, but he died in 1947 of a morphine overdose, just before it was published.
Luckily, Fallada has recently been “revived” in the English language. Three of his novels were (re-) published in English in March of 2009: Little Man – What Now?, The Drinker, and Every Man Dies Alone (Alone in Berlin).
Having read those I'm looking forward to possibly his magnum opus, Wolf Among Wolves.
This sweeping saga of love in dangerous times – the 1923 collapse of the German economy, when food and money shortages led to rioting in the streets and unemployed soldiers marauding through the countryside – is deemed by many to be Hans Fallada’s greatest work. Yet its 1938 publication made his publisher so fearful of Nazi retribution that he told Fallada, “If this book destroys us, then at least we’ll be destroyed for something that’s worth it.”
It appears here in its first unabridged translation into English, based on a contemporaneous translation by Philip Owens that has been revised and restored in full by Thorsten Carstensen and Nicholas Jacobs.
from an Amazon review:
This brilliantly rendered historical novel is a masterpiece matched perhaps only by Charles Dickens. Hans Fallada is a talented genius of the narrative composition. His characters come to life as if in a movie. No book that I am aware of has ever held such suspenseful intrigue for 793 pages as this one. It even surpasses "War and Peace."
This book, written in 1936-1937 still resonants with relevancy to our contemporary 2lst Century. It is an inspiring tale of perservance during political, social, and economic upheaval. This beautiful novel is a masterpiece of critical realism. It represents a clarion call to humanism and compassion amidst economic devastation. It depicts a depraved world ruined by incompetence, indifference, and greed. The protagonist Wolf Pagel, lives among wolves, but refuses to become one of them. This wonderful book, a hundred years before its time, declares that the individual can rise above the social and moral ills of his time.One of the most moving passages asserts what courage is:
"I used to think that courage meant standing up straight when a shell exploded
and taking your share of the shrapnel. Now I know that's mere stupidity and
bravado; courage means keeping going when something becomes completely unbearable."
Fallada's love for storytelling is marvelous! You come to know, respect and understand his characters. Like Robert Musil's "The Man With No Qualities," "Wolf Among Wolves," is a brilliant study of the psychology of individuals in everyday life, entangled in the circumstances of his time.
The novel also gives us direct insight of how economical devastation and social depravity leads to fear and insecurity and which can then result in Fascism.
The novel itself, in spite of the brutality of life, manages to be optimistic in its view of humankind. Fallada celebrates the idea "that the brave manage to keep afloat, whereas the unfit fail." It is a marvelous depiction of how love endures, and that faith in mankind can be redeemed.
It appears here in its first unabridged translation into English, based on a contemporaneous translation by Philip Owens that has been revised and restored in full by Thorsten Carstensen and Nicholas Jacobs.
from an Amazon review:
This brilliantly rendered historical novel is a masterpiece matched perhaps only by Charles Dickens. Hans Fallada is a talented genius of the narrative composition. His characters come to life as if in a movie. No book that I am aware of has ever held such suspenseful intrigue for 793 pages as this one. It even surpasses "War and Peace."
This book, written in 1936-1937 still resonants with relevancy to our contemporary 2lst Century. It is an inspiring tale of perservance during political, social, and economic upheaval. This beautiful novel is a masterpiece of critical realism. It represents a clarion call to humanism and compassion amidst economic devastation. It depicts a depraved world ruined by incompetence, indifference, and greed. The protagonist Wolf Pagel, lives among wolves, but refuses to become one of them. This wonderful book, a hundred years before its time, declares that the individual can rise above the social and moral ills of his time.One of the most moving passages asserts what courage is:
"I used to think that courage meant standing up straight when a shell exploded
and taking your share of the shrapnel. Now I know that's mere stupidity and
bravado; courage means keeping going when something becomes completely unbearable."
Fallada's love for storytelling is marvelous! You come to know, respect and understand his characters. Like Robert Musil's "The Man With No Qualities," "Wolf Among Wolves," is a brilliant study of the psychology of individuals in everyday life, entangled in the circumstances of his time.
The novel also gives us direct insight of how economical devastation and social depravity leads to fear and insecurity and which can then result in Fascism.
The novel itself, in spite of the brutality of life, manages to be optimistic in its view of humankind. Fallada celebrates the idea "that the brave manage to keep afloat, whereas the unfit fail." It is a marvelous depiction of how love endures, and that faith in mankind can be redeemed.