A Sad Affair: A Novel - Hardcover

Wolfgang G. Koeppen

3.44

63 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393057186 ISBN 13: 9780393057188

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003

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A romantic roman a clef that tells the story of Sibylle, one of the greatest literary femmes fatales since Salom�.

Banned by the Nazis in 1936 for its frank sexual themes, Wolfgang Koeppen's first novel is at last appearing in English. A romance that anticipated Beat literature by nearly twenty years through its dizzying language and exploration of casual love, this is Koeppen's most hilarious work, one that evokes Mann's Tonio Kruger. Set during the heady, pre-World War II days of cabaret-era Germany, the novel centers around Sibylle―a stunning seductress who balances her love affairs with five men at once―and Friedrich, the callow, melancholic youth who obsessively pursues her.

In a stranger-than-fiction turn, Sibylle Scholoss, on whom the character of Sibylle is (very) loosely based, is now in her nineties and living in Manhattan. This publication enables us to celebrate not only the extraordinary renaissance of one of Germany's greatest twentieth-century writers but also the meteoric stage career of a German actress whose career was thwarted in its prime.

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About the Author:

Wolfgang Koeppen's (1906-1996) The Hothouse was named one of the Los Angeles Times Best Books of the Year and a New York Times Notable Book.

The poet Michael Hofmann has won numerous prizes for his German translations.

From Publishers Weekly:

Koeppen examines the obsessive side of young love in his first novel, a sly romantic satire that was banned in Nazi Germany in 1936 for its candid depiction of a decidedly one-sided, non-Aryan relationship in which the woman calls most of the shots. The story picks up the enthralled narrator, Friederich, as he meets the woman of his dreams, Sybille Schloss, an actress in a theater troupe. The would-be lovers unite during Sybille's theatrical run after Friederich pursues her in Zurich, but Friederich's desire for romantic and sexual perfection prevents him from making love with her. Sybille's flightiness is part of the problem, as she conducts affairs with several other men, including Bosporus, an officer in the German army; the theater owner, Dr. Magnus; and Walter, a famous critic. Friederich thinks a trip to Tuscany will help his lady love focus on him, but their muddled relationship finally ends in a sequence in which the tortured, angst-ridden Friederich gives Sybille a gun and begs her to put him out of his emotional misery. The one-dimensional plot helps the satire work as a commentary on the romantic straightjacket of Nazism, and Koeppen's ruminations on love are occasionally provocative, especially when he delves into its effects on our freedom and the ways in which it falls short of expectations. In addition, the group portrait of the theater troupe is incisive, and in spite of their indecisiveness both Friederich and Sybille are well-drawn characters. A perceptive introduction by translator Hofmann sheds light on Koeppen's literary legacy.
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