Der Kramladen des Glücks.

by Franz Hessel

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Der Kramladen Des Glücks

Franz Hessel

Rütten & Loening, 1913

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 29, 1998

About the author

Franz Hessel, Berlin-born son of a Jewish banking family, was a writer and translator, translating works by Casanova, Stendhal, and Balzac, as well as collaborating with Walter Benjamin on a translation of Proust's "À la recherche du temps perdu" into German. Hessel died in early 1941, shortly after his release from an internment camp.

Reviews

[Pauline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hatte zu hohe Erwartungen, weil Cover und Titel des Romans so schön sind. Wurde enttäuscht: Die Kindheitserinnerungen aus Szczecin (was seltsam leer bleibt, es könnte auch jeder andere Ort sein) sind durchdrungen von einem vermeintlich kindlichen, eklig-anrührenden Ton. Die Jugendjahre gefallen mir vom Ton besser und sicher gibt es einige Szenen, an die ich mich zurückerinnern werde, wie die Konfrontation mit der eigenen Abwendung vom Glauben, als der Protagonist quasi zufällig auf einem Zionistenkongress landet. Aber an sich dreht sich hier alles um das unerfüllte Begehren, anfangs auch von Männern (das geht aber irgendwo in der unendlichen Reihe von Frauen, die die Liebe des Protagonisten nicht erwidern, unter), und nichts anderes. Das ist langweilig. Der Protagonist steht dabei gleichermaßen außerhalb der Gesellschaft wie er ständig neue Frauen kennenlernt, was nicht sonderlich überzeugt.

[Denis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't believe this novel, by a German writer mostly remembered for being the inspiration for one of the characters of the legendary movie Jules and Jim, has been translated in English - and that's a pity. Delightful, charming, melancholic, and filled with a sense of fleeting happiness that, with time, is actually quite profoundly moving, this is the work of a sweet dreamer, and as such, is filled with a dreamlike quality that I found irresistible. It is the story of a youth - a German youth, but also a Jewish youth, before all the tragic events that will define the German century entered the picture - it is also the portrait of a wanderer, of a lover or arts and artists, of a country and its countryside. The first chapters are some of the most enchanting I have ever read about childhood, and capture what few writers have been able to capture about their first years. Hessel's writing - lyrical and poetic without being over the top or pompous - conveys a delicate charm that seems at the same time very old-european and timeless. Reading this novel, whose episodic narration stops just before the world described collapsed (it was first published in 1915), is a little bit like watching one of those bittersweet movies directed by Max Ophüls. Behind the facade, complex emotions, impalpable realities, and hidden feelings (about desire, women, the jewish identity, male friendship and attraction, etc) appear, and give unexpected depth to what may first appear as just a sweet romantic coming of age story. The Germany and the characters of Hessel's story have all but disappeared. But the novel's powers and charms have not.