The Dead Girls' Class Trip
Selected Stories
Published on 15. June 2021
328 pages
978-1-68137-536-6 (ISBN)
Description
A new translation of the best and most provocative short stories by the author of Transit and The Seventh Cross.
Best known for her anti-fascist novels such as The Seventh Cross and the existential thriller Transit, Anna Seghers was also a gifted storyteller. The short stories she wrote throughout her life portray her social and mythic vision, and constitute an important and fascinating element of her work. This selection of Seghers's best stories, written between 1925 and 1965, reflects the range of her creativity over the years and includes her most famous stories, such as the autobiographical "Dead Girls' Class Trip" (1946), as well as those translated into English for the first time, like "Jans Must Die" (1925). Here are psychologically penetrating stories about young men corrupted by desperation, women bound by circumstance, as well as enigmatic tales of bewilderment and enchantment, stories based on myths and legends like "The Best Tales of Woynok the Thief" (1938), "The Legends of Artemis" (1938), and "The Three Trees" (1940). Seghers used the German language in especially unconventional and challenging ways in her stories, and Margot Bettauer Dembo's sensitive and skilled translation preserves this distinction.
Best known for her anti-fascist novels such as The Seventh Cross and the existential thriller Transit, Anna Seghers was also a gifted storyteller. The short stories she wrote throughout her life portray her social and mythic vision, and constitute an important and fascinating element of her work. This selection of Seghers's best stories, written between 1925 and 1965, reflects the range of her creativity over the years and includes her most famous stories, such as the autobiographical "Dead Girls' Class Trip" (1946), as well as those translated into English for the first time, like "Jans Must Die" (1925). Here are psychologically penetrating stories about young men corrupted by desperation, women bound by circumstance, as well as enigmatic tales of bewilderment and enchantment, stories based on myths and legends like "The Best Tales of Woynok the Thief" (1938), "The Legends of Artemis" (1938), and "The Three Trees" (1940). Seghers used the German language in especially unconventional and challenging ways in her stories, and Margot Bettauer Dembo's sensitive and skilled translation preserves this distinction.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
06/2021
NYRB Classics
€21.50
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Persons
Anna Seghers (1900-1983) was born in Mainz, Germany, into an upper-middle-class Jewish family. She published her first story in 1924 and received the Kleist Prize for her first novel in 1929. After World War II she moved to East Berlin, where she became an emblematic figure of East German letters, actively championing the work of younger writers from her position as the president of the Writers Union and publishing at a steady pace. Her novels Transit and The Seventh Cross are also available from NYRB Classics.
Margot Bettauer Dembo (1928-2019) translated the works of many authors. She was awarded the Goethe-Institut/Berlin Translation Prize in 1994 and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize in 2003. For NYRB Classics she translated Transit and The Seventh Cross by Seghers and Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum.
Ingo Schulze is a German novelist and short story writer. His most recent novels include Adam and Evelyn, Oranges and Angels, Peter Holtz, and The Righteous Murderers.
Margot Bettauer Dembo (1928-2019) translated the works of many authors. She was awarded the Goethe-Institut/Berlin Translation Prize in 1994 and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize in 2003. For NYRB Classics she translated Transit and The Seventh Cross by Seghers and Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum.
Ingo Schulze is a German novelist and short story writer. His most recent novels include Adam and Evelyn, Oranges and Angels, Peter Holtz, and The Righteous Murderers.
