Saturday, November 11, 2006

German poetry anthology oddity

The latest LRB, the contributor's notes: "Michael Hofmann’s anthology of 20th-century German poetry is out next month".

Eh? Wasn't this out last year? I can't be wrong because I bought it. It arrived, much to my disappointment and dissatisfaction, with a different cover to the one advertised.

But it seems I am wrong anyway. I have The Faber Book of 20th Century German Poems that is a paperback and has 220 pages, while the new one is from Farrar Straus Giroux, is called Twentieth-Century German Poetry: An Anthology, is a hardcover and has 544 pages. However, it does have the same cover.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:04 pm

    This looks like another instance of Faber dumbing down. Their recently published version of Durs Grünbein's poetry (translated by Michael Hofmann) has only his translations, unlike the FSG version which includes the German originals. See the comment at the Literary Saloon for Sepember 20th here:
    http://www.complete-review.com/saloon/archive/200609b.htm#tt7

    ReplyDelete
  2. So it's the facing trans. that bumps it up 300 pages! I suppose Faber's excuse would be the cheapness of the paperback version - under £7 through Amazon (and less now we've got the Book Depository here) - whereas FSG's version is under £19.

    ReplyDelete

Contact

Please email me at steve dot mitchelmore at gmail dot com.

Blog Archive

Contact steve dot mitchelmore at gmail.com. Powered by Blogger.