But Dickens had every reason to be well
pleased with his German readers. Not only
were English editions of his works publis
hed in Germany since 1839, but he got on
extremely well with his German publisher
Bernhard Tauchnitz. When the latter is
going to bring out Great Expectations,
Dickens writes to him: 'I have too great a
regard for you and too high a sense of
your honourable dealing, to wish to depart
from the custom we have always observed.
Whatever price you put upon it will satisfy
me. You have always proposed the terms
yourself, on former occasions and I entreat
you to do so now.' And Tauchnitz will
write later on: 'All Mr Dickens' works
have been published under agreement by
me. My intercourse with him lasted nearly
27 years Our long relations were not
only never troubled by the least disagree
ment, but were the occasion of most hear
ty personal feeling; and I shall never lose
the sense of his kind and friendly nature.'
Since 1837 all Dickens's books had also
been translated into German immediately
after they had appeared in England. This
success was above all achieved by the fact
that Dickens' books appealed to the taste
of the German middle class which was just
then rising to power. The representatives
of this new reading public saw themselves
mirrored in Dickens' portrayals of every
day life which they enjoyed not least for
their 'modern' realism. They were evi
dently tired of the aristocratic heroes and
heroines of the Romantic Period and pre
ferred novels which dealt with people of
their own social status. Many of them also
certainly agreed with the liberal and social
ideas which Dickens preached in his bo
oks. The fact that he was English could
only increase their interest as many of
them were great admirers of the English
nation and its liberal constitution. Thus
Dickens' fame was well established in
Germany when the revolution of 1848
broke out.
Although the general interest now concen
trated on political events these do not seem
to have stopped Dickens' triumphant ad
vance into the second half of the nine
teenth century. There were new translati
ons of his books which as numerous allusi
ons indicate - were read with much pleasu
re by a great many people.
Of course Dickens was not so fortunate
with his German translators as Shakespea
re; none of the German translations of
Dickens' work can in the least be compa
red with those of Shakespeare by Schlegel
and Tieck. All nineteenth-century translati
ons of Dickens' works into German are
somewhat humdrum; they are often incor
rect; it is not uncommon that certain pas
sages of a sentence (which were difficult
to translate) are left out altogether; the
modern reader misses the poetic qualities
of Dickens' style. But apparently this was
not what the German reading public before
World War 1 were looking for; they were
satisfied with being made acquainted with
Dickens' stories as such; and even a minor
translation could render Dickens' comedy
of situation or a sentimental climax in such
a way as to amuse or move the contempo
rary German reader. It needed the literary
talent of somebody who was a creative
writer himself to do Dickens justice. Gus-
tav Meyrink, famous author of Der Golem
(1915) and many other novels, was up to a
certain degree, such a man. The follower
of E.T.A. Hoffman and Edgar Allan Poe
and forerunner of Kafka excelled, in his
works, in the description of grotesque
mysterious and eerie situations and for this
reason his translations of corresponding
passages in Dickens' works get very near
the original; his rendering of, for instance,
Krook's spontaneous combustion in Bleak
House is exquisite. No other German
translations of Dickens' works are equal to
Meyrink's, although they appeared before
World War I no serious attempt at surpas
sing this achievement has since been ma
de. Unfortunately Meyrink translated only
some - but by far not all - of Dickens'
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