[MilenaMKB]

This review?s going to be very short, since I am really tired and the book?s really not great. Look, even it?s author hated it. Wilhelm Raabe was a German writer of the late 19th century. (...) Der Hungerpastor (1864) has been translated into English as The Hunger Pastor. The novel?s plot is simple enough. It is a classic Bildungsroman: it details the life of Hans Jakob Unwirrsch, who is born a son of a shoemaker, and manages to go to university where he studies theology and becomes a pastor. He finds a wife and weathers many mishaps until he finally settles in a poor parish at the Ostsee. His best childhood friend, a Jew named Moses Freudenstein, becomes his antagonist when he meets him again many years later. (...) The novel is of its time and of its genre, but it?s certainly worth reading. It?s a good bad book, so to say. Flawed, but fun. Bad Moses: Wilhelm Raabe’s ?Der Hungerpastor? shigekuni.

and here I am irritated like fuck by the translation:
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/...n-madness.html

[bypeTeenehalT]

I'm glad I at last found a longer review by Mirabell on the Shigekuni website (which I am presuming to be Mirabell in another guise).

But I'm sorry to say I couldn't find the specific comments you make on the translation into English. You appear to think the book is "really not great", then "the writing is a marvel" and towards the end it is an "enjoyable read" ending with "flawed, but fun". So you appear to sort-of like the book but sort-of not like the book.

And a quote from the review:

In fact, the novel explicitly addresses the issue, taking a clear stance against antisemitism, bafflingly. On the other hand, the antagonist of the simple Christian German Hans is a greedy rich Jew, who betrays his former friend. What Raabe is doing, basically, is telling his readers that not all Jews are bad. There are good Jews, actually, Jews are generally nice smart cosmopolitan merchants. But there are evil Jews who conform to stereotype. These are not just a disgrace to Germans, they are a disgrace to their own race. History tells us that this is not a minor point. Many famous antisemites have held Jews in high esteem, this is why, they claim, they have become a danger to the Germanic race (cf. for instance, Marr?s Der Sieg des Germanenthums ?ber das Judenthum). Additionally, Germans have a unpleasant history of claiming to know what?s best for Jews. See any debate about Israel on TV these days. The book is an enjoyable read, but some parts of it are hard to swallow. The unease resulting from this is the reason why the book has dropped out of print for decades. That?s no reason not to read it. It is of its time and of its genre, but it?s certainly worth reading. It?s a good bad book, so to say. Flawed, but fun. I note the remarks about German anti-Semites, but also the debate about Israel on (German?) TV. What sort of Germans say what sort of things about the Jews on what TV programmes? Do some Germans still think Jews are "a danger to the Germanic race"?

Most TV news coverage I see in the English language (e.g. CNN, BBC) seems to be rather anti-Israel. I'm always puzzled that people defend the Jews to the hilt when addressing atrocities during WWII, yet regard Israel as part of the axis of evil.

[MilenaMKB]

The TV thing was part of an ongoing rant about German culture, which is surfacing from time to time in my utterances. Yes, I think there is a deep seated antisemitism in the German culture, and yes, Germans currently often seem to know what's best for the Jew, and how the Jew should behave if he does not want to incur the wrath of righteous Germans who are turned into antisemites by the misbehaving Jews and similar issues. If you are really interested you can either surf my blog or start here http://www.lizaswelt.net/2009/01/hart-aber-fair.html and follow where the links etc. may lead you.

I cannot comment on the translation which I have not read. As I pointed out elsewhere, all I have is the product comment on amazon. Do I really have to repeat myself? As the indented bibliographical information at the top of the text makes clear, I am only discussing the German version.

As I wrote elsewhere, incidentally, a surprising amount of books by this writer have been translated into English. among them this questionable version of thge hunger pastor http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Pastor-German...37984203&sr=1-1, Else von der Tanne Else von der Tanne / by Wilhelm Raabe ; with translation and commentary and an introduction to Raabe... | National Library of Australia, The Odin Field https://www.lesen.ch/buch/buch.cfm?BID=3653173, Abu Telfan http://www.amazon.com/Abu-Telfan-V3-Return...37984588&sr=8-3. His most famous novel, Stopfkuchen has been translated as well but for the life of me I can't remember the English title. I'd assumed it would be "stuffcake" but it's not.

[jeargefef]

Interesting as I am eyeing the Mondial / Muriel Almon translation of The Hunger Pastor as one of several "finalists" of 3-4 novels I will take with me on my 10 day vacation. (the others in contention are by Storm, Stifter, Goethe, Gogol, Turgenev, Zola, De Assis, De Quieroz and Hamsun...) so its up against stiff competition

[MilenaMKB]

Interesting as I am eyeing the Mondial / Muriel Almon translation of The Hunger Pastor as one of several "finalists" of 3-4 novels I will take with me on my 10 day vacation. (the others in contention are by Storm, Stifter, Goethe, Gogol, Turgenev, Zola, De Assis, De Quieroz and Hamsun...) so its up against stiff competition

DON'T GET THE TRANSLATION SO FAST!!! IT IS SHORTENED, ACCORDING TO AMAZON PRODUCT INFO!!!

See this thread: http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/...n-madness.html

[jeargefef]

I see that. Thanx fo the heads up...*crosses Raabe out and removes from basket*

[boleroman]

Having read Almon's translation of The Hunger Pastor I do not know whether to thank her or not for briefly summarising 24 of the 36 chapters. I certainly felt unmoved by the novel: that might have been as a result of the summary chapters or it might simply be that Raabe had failed to convey why we should care about the central character.

Well Mondial almost certainly just republished the intro and novel from Volume XI of 'German Classics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries' which you can download
at Internet Archive: Details: The German classics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries : masterpieces of German literature translated into English, so you can decide for yourself if the Mondial book is worth it without having to fork out for it first.

To fill in what Mirabell has provided, this is what I know has been translated into english (with the original german publicate dates):

The Black Galley (1860) (short story included in Great Sea Stories from All Nations - 1930)
The Hunger Pastor (1864)
Celtic Bones (1865) (novella included in German Novellas of Realism II)
Else von der Tanne (1865) (novella University of Alabama press 1972 translation)
St.Thomas (1866) (novella included in German Novellas of Realism II: highly recommended)
Abu Telfan's Return from the Mountains of the Moon (1868)
Horacker (1876) part of Continuum's Novels of Wilhelm Raabe (http://www.amazon.com/Novels-German-...0052701&sr=1-2)
The Odin Field (1889)
Tubby Schaumann(Stopfkucken 1891) - included in Novels of Wilhelm Raabe
Kloster Lugau (1894)