The Storyteller Essays by Walter Benjamin

Description: A new translation of philosopher Walter Benjamin's work as it pertains to his famous essay, "The Storyteller," this collection includes short stories, book reviews, parables, and as a selection of writings by other authors who had an influence on Benjamin's work. Walter Benjamin's "The Storyteller" is among the greatest and most widely read essays of this ever-suggestive but also enigmatic master thinker. Published in 1936 in an obscure Swiss review, "The Storyteller" was the product of at least a decade of ongoing reflection and composition. What might be called the story of The Storyteller Essays starts in 1926, when Benjamin wrote an essay about one of his favorite authors, the German romantic Johann Peter Hebel, and then continues in a beautiful series of short essays, book reviews (of Arnold Bennett's novel The Old Wives' Tale, among others), short stories, parables ("The Handkerchief," written in Ibiza in 1932-1933), and even radio shows for children (The Earthquake in Lisbon). In this new collection these writings are brought together in one place, giving us a new appreciation of how Benjamin's thinking changed and ripened over time. These superb and wonderfully readable pieces are further accompanied by some key readings of his own--texts by his contemporaries Ernst Bloch, Georg Lukács, and Jean Paulhan; by Paul Valéry; and by Herodotus and Montaigne--and finally, to bring things around, there are two short stories by "the incomparable Hebel" with whom Benjamin's intellectual adventure began. Tess Lewis's magnificent new translation further refreshes our understanding of the work, while editor Samuel Titan's introduction fills in the biographical and intellectual context in which Benjamin's "The Storyteller" came to life. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was a philosopher, cultural critic, and essayist. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Benjamin influenced many of his contemporaries, including Bertolt Brecht, Gershom Scholem, and Theodor Adorno. Benjamin's best-known essays include "The Task of the Translator," "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," and "Theses on the Philosophy of History." In 1940, he committed suicide in Portbou, on the French-Spanish border, when his attempt to escape Nazi forces was thwarted. Samuel Titan is an editor and translator based in Brazil. He teaches comparative literature at the University of São Paulo. Tess Lewis has translated works from the French and German, including books by Peter Handke, Anselm Kiefer, Philippe Jaccottet, and Christine Angot. Her awards include the 2017 PEN Translation Prize and a Guggenheim fellowship. She serves as the co-chair of the PEN Translation Committee and is an advisory editor for The Hudson Review. Introduction THE STORYTELLER ESSAYS Introduction Johann Peter Hebel The Crisis of the Novel: On Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz Mulberry Omelet The Lisbon Earthquake Oskar Maria Graf as Storyteller On Proverbs The Handkerchief Storytelling and Healing Reading Novels The Art of Storytelling By the Fire Experience and Poverty The Storyteller ESSAYS BY OTHERS Silence and Mirror by Ernst Bloch The Giant's Toy as Legend by Ernst Bloch The Embroidery of Marie Monnier by Paul Valéry From Theory of the Novel by Georg Lukács On Sadness by Michel de Montaigne From Histories by Herodotus From The Treasure Chest of the Rhenish Family-Friend by Johann Peter Hebel

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