The New Sufferings of Young W.
Ulrich Plenzdorf
Language: English
Pages: 84
ISBN: 0881338915
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
One of the most talked-about works ever published in the German Democratic Republic! This innovative novel by an East German writer is a worthy companion to the classic it parodies and parallels: Goethe's The Sufferings of Young Werther. Goethe and J. D. Salinger were the two greatest influences on Edgar Wibeau, "Young W." Edgar is a 17-year-old with the frustrations of teenagers all over the world, living with the added pressures of an East-bloc state. A model all-GDR boy, the son of a factory director, he suddenly drops out. But not from socialism per se--just from conformity, picky regulations, and official disapproval of jeans, the blues, and girls. Hiding out, he finds and devours an old copy of The Sufferings of Young Werther. From then on he wards off reality with Goethe texts, and young Wibeau's fate is superimposed on that of Werther like a transparent overlay. It is an ironic and revealing linkage.
Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Goethe, Gotz von Berlichingen: A Play (ISBN 9780881335415); Hauptmann, Three Plays [The Weavers, Hannele, and The Beaver Coat] (ISBN 9780881335408); and Novalis, Henry von Ofterdingen: A Novel (ISBN 9780881335743).
Lonely Planet Discover Germany (Travel Guide)
Embarrassed. . . . I don't know what other stupid things I might have said. I don't think I stopped talking until I was standing on the stairs, the door was already shut, and it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't said a word about who I was and all that. But I just couldn't bring myself to ring the doorbell again and say it all. I don't know if you can understand that, people. When it was all over I crawled back into my garden house, like always. 1 wanted to hear some music, and I did, too,.
One, I obviously didn't have that. And you just don't find meters lying around like old truck shock absorbers. By the way, you couldn't find them just lying around either, but you could at least get a hold of some if you needed 'em. Without the shock absorbers I'd have been all washed up. T h e casing actually should've been thicker, for the pressure. If necessary I was planning to bore out the nozzles. That would've made the stream thicker, but I wanted to start with oil-base anyway. By twelve I.
It wasn't technically acceptable. But I was interested in the principle. I'd estimate that was my last thought before I pressed the button. I, idiot that I am, had actually taken apart the doorbell button from the garden house. I could've used any normal switch. But I'd taken apart the doorbell button, just so I could say to Addi: Just press on this button here. I was a complete idiot, people. The last thing I noticed was that it got bright and that I couldn't pull my hand away from the button.
Didn't show any more concern for his son than an occasional postcard!" " P a r d o n me! That's what y o u wanted, wasn't it, what w i t h m y lifestyle?!" "That's y o u r old i r o n y again! N o t going to the police was perhaps the o n l y right t h i n g that I d i d . E v e n that ended up w r o n g . B u t I was s i m p l y fed up w i t h h i m . H e ' d put me in an impossible situation at the trade school and in the factory. T h e son of the director, until then the best apprentice,.
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