Berlin Stories is a 2012 English-language collection of 38 feuilletons, short stories, and prose pieces by the Swiss author Robert Walser. The included works were originally written and published in the 1900's and treat Berlin as the subject matter. Most of the pieces are translated by Susan Bernofsky, with a small number translated by Christopher Middleton and Harriett Watts.

In the words of Bernofsky, the pieces create "a city portrait of [...] bustling streets, technology-fueled haste, social and artistic striving, and a certain melting-pot quality seen above all in the public parks where many levels of society intersect."

Background The included prose works were chosen and organized by Jochen Greven (1932–2012), a German scholar and long-time editor of Walser's German publications, from among a larger set of about 120 Berlin-relevant pieces by Walser.

Walser moved to Berlin in 1905 at age 27 soon after publishing his first prose book, Fritz Kocher's Essays in 1904. Berlin's thriving art scene was a destination of German-language writers and artists, and Robert's older brother Karl had already moved there. After living in Berlin for seven years and then moving back to Switzerland, Walser called himself "ridiculed and unsuccessful."

Format and genre Walser called most of his short (non-verse) works "prose pieces", which includes a mixture of fiction, historical fiction, non-fictional descriptions, and observational memoir-like musings. His common format of short pieces has been called "literary snapshots" of urban and social spaces, and "hybrids of story and essay." Many of the pieces in this collection were published as feuilletons or in literary magazines.

Reception Nicholas Lezard at The Guardian wrote, "in this unbelievably delightful and timeless collection of short pieces, we can recover the delight of ordinary, uncondescending appreciation, [at] places where the vacant-minded stroller can take 'peculiar pleasure' including the tram, the theatre, the train station, the park." Lezard suggested that the judgment of a reader will depend on the serenity of their disposition.

Mary Hawthorne at The New Yorker wrote in a review, "Whether he is observing an Abyssinian lion in the zoo, or complaining about pompous, self-important people, or thinking about a park, or observing a play, or assessing the character of the city street, it is always the quality of mind that holds us rapt."

Andrew Naffis-Sahely at The Independent wrote that when Walser "forgets himself" the "result is outstanding" and called "Frau Wilke" masterful. Naffis-Sahely singled out "The Little Berliner", in which "an upper-class 12-year-old girl voices her unintentionally hilarious opinions on her city, her Papa, and her privileged vision of the world." He added that the collection doesn't leave a lasting impression of Berlin specifically and that the observations in the writing could apply to any city.

Christopher Ohge at Artfuse wrote, "Walser’s unsullied, alien eye [as an outsider] captured the unstable shifting identity and landscape (in the final days of the Kaiser Wilhelm II’s regime) as they were in motion." Ohge praised Walser's aphoristic style as "filled with vigor" and said said his teasing critiques of the Berlin theater scene are "often uproarious." He praised Bernofsky's talent for conveying Walser's "nimble sense of humor" and difficult compound German words in English.

A crowd survey response chosen for publication by The Guardian discussed enjoying Berlin Stories and noted that fragments are Walser's specialty. They also said, “[Walser] takes great pleasure in simple things: like taking a walk on Market day, or stuffing his face at a sort of German pub, or breathing in the musty smell of a room that hasn’t been lived in."

Pieces Included The groupings below follow the section titles in the book. Pieces are translated by Susan Bernofsky except in three cases where otherwise noted.

The City Streets

"Good Morning, Giantess!" (1907) "The Park" "Friedrichstrasse" (1907) "Market" "Aschinger" "The Metropolitan Street" "Berlin W" "Tiergarten" (1911) "In the Electric Tram" (1908) "The Metropolitan Street"

The Theater

"The Theater, a Dream" "A Person of Possessed of Curiosity" "On the Russian Ballet" "Portrait Sketch" "On Staging Lies" "Do You Know Meier?" "Four Amusements" (1907) "Cowshed" "An Actor"

Berlin Life

"Fabulous" "Mountain Halls" (1908) "The Little Berliner"Translated by Harriett Watts. "Flower Days" "Fire" "Something About the Railway" "What Became of Me" "Food for Thought"

Looking Back

"Remembering the Tales of Hoffman" "The Tanners" "The Secretary" "Frau Bahni" "Full" (1916) "Horse and Woman" "Frau Wilke"Translated by Christopher Middleton "Frau Scheer" "The Millionairess" "A Homecoming in the Snow"

Footnotes

Translators

Further reading

References