Duncan, Bruce

Ludwig Achim Von Arnim's Novellas of 1812 Isabella of Egypt; Melück Maria Blainville; the Three Loving Sisters and the Lucky Dyer; Angelika the Genoese and Cosmus the Tightrope-Walker

1997 0-7734-8439-6
Ludwig Achim von Arnim (1781-1831) is one of German Romanticism's most important writers. Only one of Arnim's short stories (The Mad Invalid at Fort Rattoneau) has previously been translated into English. In 1812, he published this group of four novellas. All are interesting, both inherently and historically, but Isabella, the longest of the four, has become a major canonical work. Still read today, it is also often cited in studies of Romanticism and in scholarly works about folklore. The Surrealists were particularly taken with it, and André Breton translated it into French. Czech, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish versions have appeared in recent decades, but this is the first complete translation into English.