Quick, name a German novelist from the nineteenth century you would rank alongside the great British, American, French and Russian novelists of the same period. Stumped? Don't feel bad--there really were not any world-class novelists writing in German during this period. In his doctoral dissertation (The Castle in the Bildungsroman, Tulane, 1972), Gadway offered an explanation for this lack in terms of the long shadow that was cast in German literature by Goethe's Wilhelm Meister. His dissertation director, Professor Margaret Groben, had this to say of the highly original work: I have,...
Quick, name a German novelist from the nineteenth century you would rank alongside the great British, American, French and Russian novelists of the sa...