Quellenkritische Studien zum Werk Thomas Manns by Thomas Mann; Paul Scherrer; HansWyslingReview by: T. J. ReedThe Modern Language Review, Vol. 64, No. 3 (Jul., 1969), pp. 709-711Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3722117 .

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Reviews 709

descriptions, and sketches contained in Freiherr von Biedermann's famous collec- tion of memoirs by and about Goethe, and they also added new English versions of several items from Eckermann's Conversations. The chronological arrangement is a welcome guide through this attractive book which unfolds to the reader the personality of 'the last great all-embracing mind'.

The accounts and memoirs start with Elisabeth, Goethe's mother - report by Bettina Brentano - and end with Goethe's death about which some moving lines are recorded: e.g. K. W. Miiller's memoir of 22 March 1832: 'and his heart, that heart which had brought forth and carried a whole world within itself, had ceased to beat' ... and there is also the well-known homage by Eckermann who on the morning of 23 March 1832 marvelled at the 'god-like magnificence' of Goethe's earthly remains.

In their 'Introduction' the editors and translators draw a sympathetic sketch of Goethe as a personality, as the key-figure in the fusion of two cultural groups in Karl August's principality, the nobility and the bourgeoisie, and as the artistic and scientific centre which radiated from Weimar into the whole Western world. In this edition the editors are mainly concerned with the Goethe of the spoken word. As the reports are often coloured by personal considerations we must make allowances and cannot expect absolute consistency of impression. In this connexion Eckermann's Conversations come in for some harsh censure, but it is to the credit of the authors that the 'inner verisimilitude' of the memoirs is not denied to this 'crowning achievement of the diarists of Goethe's circle'.

With the general reader in mind, the editors have been at pains not to stress specialized and theoretical matters, but to let the 'human reality' of Goethe emerge from their selected conversations and anecdotes. Thus in Frau von Stein's account of the poet's wild behaviour (May 1776), or Madame de Stael's rebuke of bad taste (February I804) on Goethe's reaction to her use of the translation air brulant in the ballad 'Der Fischer', or Goethe's reading of the Scottish ballad; H. Heine's sense of shock when observing the effects of recent illness on Goethe's appearance (October I824), though he called Goethe's eyes 'the one thing now worth visiting in Weimar'; or reminiscences by A. Schopenhauer, Schiller, H. Steffen, L. Rellstab, H. Voss, Crabb Robinson, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, etc.

It is, however, a pity that the choice of selected passages is rather unbalanced. Too much weight is given to the later years of Goethe. The first half quite unreason- ably gets the worst of it. Otherwise, this volume offers to the young Goethe-student a very helpful and attractive introduction to the poet's mind and society. Above all it reflects the loving devotion of the editors to the study of Goethe. It is a sad thought that not only the publisher Oswald Wolff but also one of the editors (Dr Robert Pick) have in the meantime been taken from us. Oswald Wolff, to whose publication of the four volumes German Men of Letters many Germanists have contri- buted, died on 14 September 1968. Dr Robert Pick died on 2 February 1967; his warm humanity and valuable learned pursuits found deep appreciation, parti- cularly by our revered doyen of Goethe-scholarship, Professor L. A. Willoughby, in German Life and Letters, New Series, 20 (April I967). A. CLOSS BRISTOL

Quellenkritische Studien zum Werk Thomas Manns. By PAUL SCHERRER and HANS WYSLING. (Thomas-Mann-Studien, I) Bern: Francke. I967. 347 PP. 48 Sw.Fr.

In his Kunst der Interpretation, Emil Staiger asks where 'interpretation' would be without the materials of earlier positivist scholarship. Whose patient spadework is now guaranteeing the insights or arabesques of the future? These studies, one by

Reviews 709

descriptions, and sketches contained in Freiherr von Biedermann's famous collec- tion of memoirs by and about Goethe, and they also added new English versions of several items from Eckermann's Conversations. The chronological arrangement is a welcome guide through this attractive book which unfolds to the reader the personality of 'the last great all-embracing mind'.

The accounts and memoirs start with Elisabeth, Goethe's mother - report by Bettina Brentano - and end with Goethe's death about which some moving lines are recorded: e.g. K. W. Miiller's memoir of 22 March 1832: 'and his heart, that heart which had brought forth and carried a whole world within itself, had ceased to beat' ... and there is also the well-known homage by Eckermann who on the morning of 23 March 1832 marvelled at the 'god-like magnificence' of Goethe's earthly remains.

In their 'Introduction' the editors and translators draw a sympathetic sketch of Goethe as a personality, as the key-figure in the fusion of two cultural groups in Karl August's principality, the nobility and the bourgeoisie, and as the artistic and scientific centre which radiated from Weimar into the whole Western world. In this edition the editors are mainly concerned with the Goethe of the spoken word. As the reports are often coloured by personal considerations we must make allowances and cannot expect absolute consistency of impression. In this connexion Eckermann's Conversations come in for some harsh censure, but it is to the credit of the authors that the 'inner verisimilitude' of the memoirs is not denied to this 'crowning achievement of the diarists of Goethe's circle'.

With the general reader in mind, the editors have been at pains not to stress specialized and theoretical matters, but to let the 'human reality' of Goethe emerge from their selected conversations and anecdotes. Thus in Frau von Stein's account of the poet's wild behaviour (May 1776), or Madame de Stael's rebuke of bad taste (February I804) on Goethe's reaction to her use of the translation air brulant in the ballad 'Der Fischer', or Goethe's reading of the Scottish ballad; H. Heine's sense of shock when observing the effects of recent illness on Goethe's appearance (October I824), though he called Goethe's eyes 'the one thing now worth visiting in Weimar'; or reminiscences by A. Schopenhauer, Schiller, H. Steffen, L. Rellstab, H. Voss, Crabb Robinson, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, etc.

It is, however, a pity that the choice of selected passages is rather unbalanced. Too much weight is given to the later years of Goethe. The first half quite unreason- ably gets the worst of it. Otherwise, this volume offers to the young Goethe-student a very helpful and attractive introduction to the poet's mind and society. Above all it reflects the loving devotion of the editors to the study of Goethe. It is a sad thought that not only the publisher Oswald Wolff but also one of the editors (Dr Robert Pick) have in the meantime been taken from us. Oswald Wolff, to whose publication of the four volumes German Men of Letters many Germanists have contri- buted, died on 14 September 1968. Dr Robert Pick died on 2 February 1967; his warm humanity and valuable learned pursuits found deep appreciation, parti- cularly by our revered doyen of Goethe-scholarship, Professor L. A. Willoughby, in German Life and Letters, New Series, 20 (April I967). A. CLOSS BRISTOL

Quellenkritische Studien zum Werk Thomas Manns. By PAUL SCHERRER and HANS WYSLING. (Thomas-Mann-Studien, I) Bern: Francke. I967. 347 PP. 48 Sw.Fr.

In his Kunst der Interpretation, Emil Staiger asks where 'interpretation' would be without the materials of earlier positivist scholarship. Whose patient spadework is now guaranteeing the insights or arabesques of the future? These studies, one by

This content downloaded from 91.223.28.117 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:38:40 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

the first, the others by the present Konservator of the Zurich Thomas-Mann- Archiv offer just such materials. They draw on notebooks, letters, work-notes, drafts and Mann's library to trace the genesis of works from Buddenbrooks to Krull, including some completed only by Aschenbach- Ein Elender, Maja, Geist und Kunst. Publication of the full Geist und Kunst notes, whose importance I have argued elsewhere (Oxford German Studies, I, I966) is especially valuable. Dr Wysling's commentary on this essay goes far towards reconstructing a whole literary scene. Indeed, the earlier studies generally present the realia of life: Mann's friendships, critical alliances and enmities, and the issues they embodied; those on the late work pursue Mann's own pursuit of reality in source-books. This is not a chance distinction, but corresponds to the way Mann's method evolved. While his deepest themes remained personal - remained in fact essentially the same - the means to express them became increasingly massive and encyclopedic, in the Romantics' sense. This paradox, that what was at core Erlebnisdichtung came to rely so heavily on acquired materials, is partly explained by the Erlebnis itself. Distanz, Entfremdung, Sehnsucht, Erwihltheit arose precisely through being 'in alle Ewigkeit von dem "Realen", dem Wirklichen abgetrennt' (one of Nietzsche's artist-diagnoses which Mann took to heart). By their nature such themes brought with them little material for their own realization. Hence the compensating, even over-compensating, technique of montage and constructivism, which is at its most extreme in the late works yet can and should be seen as the culmination of a root- problem apparent early. (Wysling prefers to draw a line, suggesting that montage 'proper' begins with Zauberberg. But it is arguably at work in Schwere Stunde, and its basis is described in Kinigliche Hoheit.) The succession of materials presented in this volume amply illustrates the working out of the problem.

In 'Thomas Manns Verhaltnis zu den Quellen', Wysling generalizes from the cumulative evidence, especially from his demontage of Der Erwdhlte, and argues out, beyond archival objectivity, what Mann's methods imply. His tone is critical, but he tries to salvage what he can - the bas'tard-language of Der Erwdhlte as part of a 'Programm der Humanitat', an attempt 'die historische und geographische Weite des abendlandischen Menschen zu umfassen', a 'M6glichkeit der Volkerver- standigung'; and montage as the means to a ' "Sprachwerk", [das] mit Hilfe der Zitate aus allen Zeiten und Zungen die ganze Menschheit in sich schlieft'. 'Human- ism' is here surely the last refuge of an apologist, and the terms of the apologia come near to conceding that Mann is essentially an Epigone (see p. o10). Certainly, Mann's 'Verwortung des Universums' seems nearer to information-theory than to Orpheus, being a manipulation of ready-processed, often verbally pre-formulated, matter which has not been fundamentally transformed. 'Sprache als Weltersatz' is Wysling's noteworthy phrase. Mann's alternatives were a self-absorption devoid of content or the acceptance of a totally pre-digested world. Creativity, in the sense of a live response by language to direct contact with reality, was increasingly excluded. The most authentic statement in the precarious Scheinwelt of Mann's Gregorius-parody is the confession of lost contact: 'Ich bin ein Monch, im Grunde unkund all dessen... Ich tue nur so, als wiiBt ich recht zu erzahlen, wie Wiligis erzogen wurde, und wende Worte vor' (vII, 24). This admission ruefully echoes the ironic programme sketched in Konigliche Hoheit of 1909. Its consequences bulge the form of the intervening novels.

Whether this problem is peculiar to Mann, or can be linked with the difficulty for any modern writer of grasping complex realities; whether it might be traced back to the Romantic exhortation to deploy the materials of a fruitful modern chaos: these are questions which go beyond a review. Wysling briefly suggests that Mann's techniques are closer to Novalis and Schlegel than to his habitual stalking- horse, Goethe.

Reviews 7Io

This content downloaded from 91.223.28.117 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:38:40 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The literary sources and connexions, real and apparent, direct and indirect, are another topic that gets precise treatment, with (predictably) Nietzsche at every turn. Only the influence of Schopenhauer is an interpretative favourite more asserted than documented. His relevance is claimed where dating seems to preclude it. Evidence in notebooks (now gesperrt to scholars) is alleged but not quoted. As Wysling says, the problem needs proper investigation; but it is a tricky one - not only because the Archive has only a 1922 Schopenhauer which Mann used comparatively little (whereas we have his original GroBoktav Nietzsche with all the layers of annotation from 1895 on) but in principle: how does one distinguish Schopenhauer's contribution when there is scarcely a thought of his that Nietzsche did not, in one or the other sense, rethink? Indeed, Nietzsche draws together almost all the vital threads of nineteenth-century thinking. What could Mann not derive from him, while still leaving all his predecessors apparently relevant?

But we must be grateful for the richly intriguing contents of this book, and for the impeccable precision and clarity of both author-editor and printer. OXFORD T. J. REED

Thomas Mann und die Welt der russischen Literatur. (Ein Beitrag zur literaturwissen- schaftlichen Komparativistik.) By ALOIS HOFMAN. Berlin: Akademie. I967. 397 pp. MDN 19.50.

Believing in the constancy of social determinants and the unity of world literature, Mr Hofman proposes a 'historical-typological' approach to his subject. Theoretic- ally he allows factual studies ('anwendbare Ausgangsbasis'), but in practice he disparages the pursuit of demonstrable direct influences ('eitles Beginnen', 'falscher Eifer'). All very well. A broad search for essential congruences can be highly stimulating: even 'positivists' value the fine specimens of High Arbitrary in Professor Northrop Frye's work. But when operating at this level, one must operate consistently, and not smuggle in assertions of influence. Hofman wants to have his cake and eat it; he reports as fact particular 'influences' which he presumably thinks his principles dispense him from proving. This makes his book very much Low Arbitrary.

With parallels he is very quick on the draw, but his cartridges are often blank. 'Wenn Tonio seine sch6ne Mutter .. .als fahrlassig darstellt, so gilt dasselbe ... von [Irtenjews] labilem Vater'; Aschenbach's dream 'k6nnte der Exaltation des ... Dmitri Karamasow entsprungen sein'; in Der Zauberberg and Fathers and Sons 'stehen sich zwei Welten gegeniiber'; and so on. (He revealingly says of Fiorenza: 'H6ren wir die Beichte des sterbenden Lorenzo... erscheint vor uns sogleich Tolstoi'. Precisely.) These achievements hardly make it proper to disdain earlier critics' offerings as 'auB3erliche Ahnlichkeiten'. Hofman presents vaguer parallels, with less evidence that they are relevant, and thinks some intuition is leading him to reveal deeper relationships. This is not a strong position to argue from. He seems unaware that such vague recurrences as his are part of experience itself; nor does he show sensitivity to literary differences. Do Mann and Dostoevsky treat their outsider-figures in the same tone ? Is Thomas Buddenbrook's 'reconcilia- tion' before death so very like Prince Andrei's?

But parallels must needs be piled on - even when Hofman knows of facts which invalidate them (pp. 239, 244) - because his thesis is the beneficial effect of Russian literature as a whole in developing Mann's techniques and pointing him in the 'right' social direction. Here lies the confusion of method: this is inescapably a causal thesis, and the critic must prove it. To claim one is studying the general effect of 'unbewuBte Anregungen', not 'direkte Einfliisse', is transparently an evasion.

The literary sources and connexions, real and apparent, direct and indirect, are another topic that gets precise treatment, with (predictably) Nietzsche at every turn. Only the influence of Schopenhauer is an interpretative favourite more asserted than documented. His relevance is claimed where dating seems to preclude it. Evidence in notebooks (now gesperrt to scholars) is alleged but not quoted. As Wysling says, the problem needs proper investigation; but it is a tricky one - not only because the Archive has only a 1922 Schopenhauer which Mann used comparatively little (whereas we have his original GroBoktav Nietzsche with all the layers of annotation from 1895 on) but in principle: how does one distinguish Schopenhauer's contribution when there is scarcely a thought of his that Nietzsche did not, in one or the other sense, rethink? Indeed, Nietzsche draws together almost all the vital threads of nineteenth-century thinking. What could Mann not derive from him, while still leaving all his predecessors apparently relevant?

But we must be grateful for the richly intriguing contents of this book, and for the impeccable precision and clarity of both author-editor and printer. OXFORD T. J. REED

Thomas Mann und die Welt der russischen Literatur. (Ein Beitrag zur literaturwissen- schaftlichen Komparativistik.) By ALOIS HOFMAN. Berlin: Akademie. I967. 397 pp. MDN 19.50.

Believing in the constancy of social determinants and the unity of world literature, Mr Hofman proposes a 'historical-typological' approach to his subject. Theoretic- ally he allows factual studies ('anwendbare Ausgangsbasis'), but in practice he disparages the pursuit of demonstrable direct influences ('eitles Beginnen', 'falscher Eifer'). All very well. A broad search for essential congruences can be highly stimulating: even 'positivists' value the fine specimens of High Arbitrary in Professor Northrop Frye's work. But when operating at this level, one must operate consistently, and not smuggle in assertions of influence. Hofman wants to have his cake and eat it; he reports as fact particular 'influences' which he presumably thinks his principles dispense him from proving. This makes his book very much Low Arbitrary.

With parallels he is very quick on the draw, but his cartridges are often blank. 'Wenn Tonio seine sch6ne Mutter .. .als fahrlassig darstellt, so gilt dasselbe ... von [Irtenjews] labilem Vater'; Aschenbach's dream 'k6nnte der Exaltation des ... Dmitri Karamasow entsprungen sein'; in Der Zauberberg and Fathers and Sons 'stehen sich zwei Welten gegeniiber'; and so on. (He revealingly says of Fiorenza: 'H6ren wir die Beichte des sterbenden Lorenzo... erscheint vor uns sogleich Tolstoi'. Precisely.) These achievements hardly make it proper to disdain earlier critics' offerings as 'auB3erliche Ahnlichkeiten'. Hofman presents vaguer parallels, with less evidence that they are relevant, and thinks some intuition is leading him to reveal deeper relationships. This is not a strong position to argue from. He seems unaware that such vague recurrences as his are part of experience itself; nor does he show sensitivity to literary differences. Do Mann and Dostoevsky treat their outsider-figures in the same tone ? Is Thomas Buddenbrook's 'reconcilia- tion' before death so very like Prince Andrei's?

But parallels must needs be piled on - even when Hofman knows of facts which invalidate them (pp. 239, 244) - because his thesis is the beneficial effect of Russian literature as a whole in developing Mann's techniques and pointing him in the 'right' social direction. Here lies the confusion of method: this is inescapably a causal thesis, and the critic must prove it. To claim one is studying the general effect of 'unbewuBte Anregungen', not 'direkte Einfliisse', is transparently an evasion.

Reviews Reviews 7II 7II

This content downloaded from 91.223.28.117 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:38:40 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions