Arno Schmidt's Zettel's Traum: An Analysis

Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2016. First Edition. Small quarto in dark blue cloth; ix, 212 pages; 24 cm. Sewn. As new. Very fine. Hardcover. ISBN: 1571132619; 9781571132611

The uncommon hardcover edition. Frst comprehensive study in English of Schmidt's famous and controversial Bottom's Dream, a three-column, 1300+ page folio-sized novel. // Contents: 1. The art of writing in columns. 2. Schmidt's concept of literary realism. 3. The Etym theory. 4. Tropes of subversion. 5. Schmidt's reading of Freud's ego-development. Notes: "First published 2003 by Camden House."--Title page verso. // "Arno Schmidt (18 January 1914 – 3 June 1979) was a German author and translator. He is little known outside of German-speaking areas, in part because his works present a formidable challenge to translators. Although not among Germany's most popular authors,[1][dead link] critics and writers often consider him to be one of the most important German-language writers of the 20th century."—Wikipedia. // Modern German literature, 20th Cenury. // " 'I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was,' says Bottom. 'I have had a dream, and I wrote a Big Book about it,' Arno Schmidt might have said. Schmidt's rare vision is a journey into many literary worlds. First and foremost it is about Edgar Allan Poe, or perhaps it is language itself that plays that lead role; and it is certainly about sex in its many Freudian disguises, but about love as well, whether fragile and unfulfilled or crude and wedded. As befits a dream upon a heath populated by elemental spirits, the shapes and figures are protean, its protagonists suddenly transformed into trees, horses, and demigods. In a single day, from one midsummer dawn to a fiery second, Dan and Franzisca, Wilma and Paul explore the labyrinths of literary creation and of their own dreams and desires." -- Publisher. // Edgar Allan Poe