Paul the Puppeteer and Other Short Fiction

by Theodor Storm, Denis Jackson (Translator)

Here are three contrasting works from Theodor Storm's middle period--the 1870s. The title story is an affectionate portrayal of the vanishing world of the marionette theatre with its guild-dominated society of the traveling puppeteers and their gypsy-like way of life. "The Village on the Moor" is seen through an investigating lawyer's eyes, and is the case of a mysterious death out on the moor, the chief suspect being a girl of sinister aura with whom the young deceased was in love. Both these stories are translated into English for the first time. One of Storm's most moving stories, "Renate," records the memories of an eighteenth-century Lutheran pastor and his love for a farmer's daughter who is persecuted by the local community for alleged witchcraft. Denis Jackson also translated Storm's The Dykemaster.

Genres: German Literature

221 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2004

About the author

Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm (1817 – 1888) was a German poet and author.

He was born in Husum ("the grey town by the grey sea") on the west coast of Schleswig of well-to-do parents. While still a student of law, he published a first volume of verse together with the brothers Tycho and Theodor Mommsen.

He worked as a lawyer in Schleswig-Holstein, but emigrated to Thuringia in 1851, leaving his mother's household, and did not return until 1864 to become a writer leaving his homeland in Denmark.

He wrote a number of stories, poems and novellas. His two most well-known works are the novellas Immensee ("Bees' Lake", 1849) and Der Schimmelreiter ("The Rider on the White Horse"), first published in April 1888 in the Deutsche Rundschau. Other published works include a volume of his poems (1852), the novella Pole Poppenspäler (1874) and the novella Aquis submersus (1877).

Reviews

[BJ Lillis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three enchanting stories, and a perfect October read. Storm brings a real concern with human psychology and community dynamics to his romantic, atmospheric stories. The anglophone author these stories most put me in mind of is Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne approaches the supernatural with a similar concern for underlying social dynamics in The House of Seven Gables, while bringing the slow-burning intensity of gothic fiction to the entirely realistic Blithedale Romance. Likewise, in Storm's Renata, the magic trick is to tell a story that explains away witchcraft, not scooby-doo style, as trickery or disguise, but rather as a realistic manifestation of community tension and religious fervor—and yet to do so without losing for a moment its spellbinding and magical mood. Paul the Puppeteer accomplishes something similar, embedding a thoughtful analysis of evolving social mores within its child-like appreciation for the magic of theater. All three stories are frame narratives, with complex and contradictory points-of-view at play. This volume's illuminating introduction convincingly asserts that Storm used his frame narrators as cover for his stories' stealthy radicalism on matters of social class and religion. To me, they come off as a curious blend of old-fashioned and modern. Storm turns frequently to the kind of "and then I found this letter in a drawer" devices that contemporary literature uses rather sparingly. At the same time, Storm uses his shifting points of view in a very modern way, leaving the reader with no single interpretation, or even real confidence in what has actually happened—an ambiguity that serves style and meaning alike.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Theodor Storm is a wonderful writer and the translation from the German to English is excellently done. In Germany students read Storm as a matter of course to improve their German. I am reading him because he writes so very clearly and well; a great sense of place, terrific use of folklore, and feel for the period early to mid-1800s. Terrific read and a great way to set you up for a session of our own writing.
Highly recommended.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 novellas from the late 19th century, smoothly translated from the German. Excellent storytelling on display and all sorts of insights into attitudes and lifestyles in the Schleswig-Holstein area in the 18th and 19th centuries.