Poet and translator Christopher Middleton died last week at the age of 89. Middleton was the first translator to bring Swiss Modernist writer Robert Walser to an English-language reading audience. He translated many other writers, including Georg Trakl, Christa Wolf, and Friedrich Nietzsche. But for me, his translation of Walser’s Jakob von Gunten remains the […]
All posts found when searching for robert walser
RIP Christopher Middleton, early translator of Robert Walser
Posted by sean on December 2, 2015
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2015/12/02/rip-christopher-middleton-early-translator-of-robert-walser/
The Robber by Robert Walser
The Robber by Robert Walser Review by S. D. Stewart With his slim novel The Robber, Robert Walser reached the pinnacle of his experiments in portraying a certain type of character in his fiction. To assign this type a single defining term, such as flâneur, dreamer, drifter, or perhaps lost soul, reduces the scale of […]
Posted by sean on February 6, 2015
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/book-reviews/the-robber-by-robert-walser/
Jakob von Gunten by Robert Walser
Jakob von Gunten by Robert Walser Review by S. D. Stewart I feel how little it concerns me, everything that’s called “the world,” and how grand and exciting what I privately call the world is to me. I used to love a good Bildungsroman. Perhaps every young person does, as they are approaching the age […]
Posted by sean on January 7, 2015
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/book-reviews/jakob-von-gunten-by-robert-walser/
The Tanners by Robert Walser
The Tanners by Robert Walser Review by S. D. Stewart I don’t want to go running down some career path—supposedly such a grand enterprise. What’s so grand about it: people acquiring crooked backs at an early age from stooping at undersized desks, wrinkled hands, pale faces, mutilated workday trousers, trembling legs, fat bellies, sour stomachs, […]
Posted by sean on January 7, 2015
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/book-reviews/the-tanners-by-robert-walser/
A Schoolboy’s Diary and Other Stories by Robert Walser
A Schoolboy’s Diary and Other Stories by Robert Walser Review by S. D. Stewart For readers new to Robert Walser as well as those who consider him an old friend, this collection published by NYRB provides a delightful survey of his idiosyncratic short prose, which was the bread-and-butter of his working writer years. Spanning the […]
Posted by sean on January 7, 2015
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/book-reviews/a-schoolboys-diary-and-other-stories-by-robert-walser/
belated lists for 2014
Happy New Year! Here are my belated lists of favorite books read and music listened to in 2014. Neither list is in any particular order. My reading slowed down in autumn when I took on Reiner Stach’s Kafka biographies. They ended up being my top favorites for the year, reminding me once again of my […]
Posted by sean on January 7, 2015
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/belated-lists-for-2014/
the tanners [book review]
Recently I began reading Robert Walser’s novel The Assistant. I associate Walser with the winter season, and particularly the month of December, likely because that was when I first started reading his work. Walser also died in December; he was found lying in the snow on Christmas Day 1956, having suffered a heart attack during […]
Posted by sean on December 10, 2014
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/the-tanners-book-review/
fragment 18
confabulate as a way to genuflect, the past only what it may have been, a shimmer in dry corners of our eyes. or remember as a way to draw maps the passed only what just went by a glimmer of our truths, not lies. (in between i can’t help thinking what if i were smaller, […]
Posted by sean on May 30, 2013
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/fragment-18/
late rain world
The world was late today. I don’t know. I was late. But I wasn’t expecting the world to also be late. I had hoped for a leisurely ride in on mi bicicleta. Instead there were cars everywhere. An automotive horror show. Maybe it was the rain. Rain slows the world to a crawl. Like slow […]
Posted by sean on January 15, 2013
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/late-rain-world/
jakob von gunten [book review]
Jakob von Gunten by Robert Walser I feel how little it concerns me, everything that’s called “the world,” and how grand and exciting what I privately call the world is to me. I used to love a good Bildungsroman. Perhaps every young person does, as they are approaching the age where they will be cast […]
Posted by sean on December 26, 2012
https://lostgander.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/jakob-von-gunten-book-review/