The Black Mirror and Other Stories: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Germany and Austria (Early Classics Of Science Fiction) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0819568317 ISBN 13: 9780819568311

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 2008

Synopsis

This entertaining anthology delivers great reading and an overview of German-language science fiction, including works by the "German father of science fiction" Kurd Lasswitz, the Austrian writer Ludwig Hevesi (author of "Jules Verne in Hell"), the fantasist Paul Scheerbart (a scurrilous, idiosyncratic writer who was an outsider in both literature and science fiction), popular writers Otto Willi Gail and Hans Dominik, as well as the contemporary luminaries of the genre: Wolfgang Jeschke, Herbert W. Franke, Andreas Eschbach, and Carl Amery. The introduction by the editor gives a succinct history of German language science fiction, including its representation in Hugo Gernsback's popular magazines. With select bibliographies of German language science fiction and writings on German science fiction, this book will be appreciated by scholars and general readers alike.

About this title

About the Author:

FRANZ ROTTENSTEINER has written and edited many books in the fields of science fiction and fantasy, including The Fantasy Book: An Illustrated History from Dracula to Tolkien (1978), View From Another Shore: European Science Fiction (1999), and The Best of Austrian Science Fiction (2001). He lives in Vienna, Austria. MIKE MITCHELL has translated over 50 books. He was awarded the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for his translation of Herbert Rosendorfer's Letters Back to Ancient China (1997) and lives in Argyll, on the west coast of Scotland.

From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review. Handsomely equipped with a comprehensive introductory historical essay, editor's notes and selected bibliography, this distinguished anthology is a model of genre research. These previously untranslated stories, published from 1871 onward, offer reading virtually unknown to most American (and many German) readers. Some authors combine scientific and philosophical issues, like Kurd Lasswitz in his witty tale To the Absolute Zero of Existence: A Story from 2371, while others, as in Erik Simon's 1983 title story, pose psychological puzzles involving alien phenomena. Though the earlier stories in particular demand painstaking reading, all of them repay it with rewarding insights into German and Austrian culture and the many possible uses and misuses of science. (Dec.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0819568317
• ISBN 13: 9780819568311
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 424
• Editor: Rottensteiner Franz