Forthcoming: Sebald’s “A Place in the Country”
October 11, 2009
Somewhat buried in the notices on the copyright page of the recently published novel The Tanners by Robert Walser is the first notice I have seen that an English translation of W.G. Sebald’s Logis in einem Landhaus is in the works. The Tanners opens with Sebald’s essay on Walser called Le Promeneur Solitaire (more in this in a forthcoming post), and the related copyright notice indicates that this essay from Logis in einem Landhaus has been translated by Jo Catling “from the forthcoming work A Place in the Country by W.G. Sebald to be published by Random House.” There is currently no mention of the book on the Random House website.
As I have written earlier, Logis in einem Landhaus (Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 1998) includes essays on Robert Walser, Gottfried Keller, Johann Peter Hebel, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Eduard Mörike, and Jan Peter Tripp. Undoubtedly influenced by his earlier forays into fiction – Die Ausgewanderten (1992) and Die Ringe des Saturn (1995) – Sebald inserts images of all types into the essays in Logis in Einem Landhaus. In fact, each of the six essays receives a large foldout image in full color. Will Random House spring for the expense to do the same? Until Catling’s translation of Le Promeneur Solitaire, the only essay from Logis in Einem Landhaus to have appeared in English is the one on artist Jan Peter Tripp, which is included in the British and American editions of Unrecounted, the book on which Sebald and Tripp collaborated.
October 12, 2009 at 11:31 am
So, again, we’re still waiting for translations of his essay or essays on Thomas Bernhard, one of the central influences on Sebald’s work (which he confirms in the KCRW BookWorm interview). What is going on?
October 13, 2009 at 2:04 pm
The Rousseau piece in “Logis” is truly beautiful!
October 18, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Terry,
Can’t find an email address to send this to, so I’ll leave it here. There is a short article on Frank Auerbach, the painter who was one of the models for Max Aurach/Ferber, in the current London Review of Books. The article is available at http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n20/feav01_.html.
cheers
October 27, 2009 at 3:26 pm
A beautiful book, translated and published in French in 2005 ( Actes Sud) , the French title being “Séjours à la campagne”
December 16, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Can you tell me please if the translation is going to be available in the U.S? I can find no mention of it anywhere, and unfortunately my copy of The Tanners is without the Sebald essay, which I would very much like to read.
Thank you.
December 16, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Nicole: I feel sure that the translation will appear in the US from Random House, but you are right – there is no advance notice about this yet.
I am puzzled by your comment that your copy of The Tanners doesn’t have Sebald’s essay. There is only one edition in English – from New Directions – and it has the Sebald piece in it. Maybe you need to buy a new copy. Terry
December 17, 2009 at 10:17 am
Thank you Terry. I’ll have to watch for the Sebald book, or learn German I suppose.
The reason my copy of The Tanners doesn’t have the Sebald essay is that it was an advance copy sent to book stores that my friend, who owns a bookstore gave to me to read, the essay was accidentally omitted from that printing.
Thanks again. I’ll keep checking your website for news of the Sebald book.
June 24, 2010 at 1:57 am
Thought you may be interested to know that there will apparently be at least one other Sebald translation coming up. Jo Catling’s website, under research, lists the following as an upcoming publication:
“Translation of W. G. Sebald, Beschreibung des Unglücks (1986) and Unheimliche Heimat (1991) as Silent Catastrophes; Hamish Hamilton/ Random House, 2012″
It also seems she’ll be editing a book of criticism and essays:
“Ed., “Saturn’s moons”: a W. G. Sebald Handbook, edited volume (in collaboration with Dr Richard Hibbitt), 110,000 words + c.100 illustrations, Oxford: Legenda, 2010/11 ISBN-13: 9781906540029″
http://www.uea.ac.uk/lit/People/Academic/Jo+Catling