Die Rose im Sand

After years of research and preparation and translation, the time has finally arrived: My book Die Rose im Sand, translated stories by Susan Glaspell, has been published by Dörlemann Verlag in Switzerland. I travelled to the USA for this, have been in exchange with some of the most knowledgable researchers on this author, and read very many works by – and about – Glaspell.

In the U.S., the modernist author is a classic, having written short stories, novels, but also a great many plays – both one-act and long plays. Her brilliant prose pieces, and especially the plays, are very often strongly influenced by expressionism – a special challenge for the translator.

Glaspell mainly wrote on feminist themes, on gender roles in society. The stories selected here focus on her second theme: that of social status, of class issues. Of course, both are often intertwined. With her strongest instrument, empathic humor, she never parades her protagonists but shows them in their weaknesses with abundant understanding.

She takes us to an America that is practically forgotten today, where urbanization, industrialization, technical change, socialism, immigration, the fight for women’s rights set the agenda. She takes us behind the scenes of the promises of progress and gives a voice to the forgotten, the marginalized, the farmers and workers, who felt betrayed by these developments. With her enormously perceptive language, she shows the contradictions and costs of such upheavals, which remind us of many of today’s issues (if the past can remind of the future), and offers a response that we still find convincing today.

I am immensely pleased to be able to introduce this strong writer of American modernism to a German-speaking audience. I already had an opportunity to read from the book in Weimar and am looking forward to many more readings. There are already some reviews:

“”Glaspell’s stories are a real joy: in them, the American with a penchant for scenic storytelling assembles pleas for empathy, a change of perspective and justice. … In terms of her work and influence, she can easily compete with Ernest Hemingway and T. S. Eliot. In any case, it should not disappear as contemplatively on the bookshelf as the cover of this edition suggests.” (Marcel Hartwig, Logbuch kreutzer)

“An eye for the essentials, polished sentences and, despite the short form, fine portraits of the characters still make the texts very readable today. With Dörlemann, I don’t need to mention that this edition is also beautiful, do I?” (fraulehmannliest, Instagram)

Editing, translation from U.S. English, and afterword by Henning Bochert
288 pages. Thread-stitching. Reading volume
€ [D] 26.00 / € [A] 26.80 / SFr. 35.00 (UVP)
ISBN 9783038201342

Available as eBook!
eBook ISBN 978-3-03820-900-3
€ 19.99

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