The dog of Florence

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First edition of The Dog of Florence from 1923.

The Dog of Florence is a1923novel by Felix Salten .

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The novel begins in eighteenth century Vienna . After the death of his father, an Italian sculptor, the young Lukas Grassi was left with no financial means and received an attic at the Kärntnertor rented free of charge from a friendly lady . From the window of this room he watches a column of carriages as Vienna is on its way to Florenceleave. Depressed, he realizes that he would have offered himself as a servant or horse boy if he had known that Archduke Ludwig was traveling to Italy. When he sees the Archduke's dog, Cambyses, Lukas exclaims: “Oh God, I even envy this dog! Yes, if I could only be myself every other day, (...) then I would be satisfied ... (...) then I would like to be this dog and go on the trip with me. "

When expressing this wish, Lukas touches a gold ring that is set in the window sill and promptly fulfills his wish. So he can travel to Florence alongside the Archduke's troops, alternating between a day in human and dog form. This requires the young fellow to have a crazy double life - one evening he waits in front of the room for the courtesan Claudia, whom he adores, when he turns into a dog again.

The English translation of the end of the book differs greatly from the original: In Salen's version, the archduke stabs the dog and kills Lukas in the process. Huntley Paterson's English translation contains six more pages: Lukas survives, receives medication, and is reunited with Claudia. It is unclear whether these additional pages are authorized. While the English editions still appear with the changed ending, the Finnish edition from 2016 contains both ends.

shape

The Dog of Florence is written in one piece, there is no division into chapters that would be visible in the table of contents. However, the original edition used an ornate horizontal line to break the text into larger sections; a 1985 edition used stars for this.

Position in literary history

Classification in the work of the author

This is the only book of Salten that contains supernatural elements, which could indicate an influence by ETA Hoffmann .

Some recurring motifs from Salen's oeuvre can also be found in this book: The deep gap between rich and poor, and the criticism of the nobility. With the figure of the courtesan Claudia, Salten takes up an image of women that was already used in Olga Frohgemuth (1910). Like them, Claudia also unscrupulously exploits the men, she has the beauty that shines through everything that is typical of Salen's stories.

The novel has an undisguised autobiographical background. In the 1890s the journalist Salten became a friend and confidante of the Austrian Archduke Leopold Ferdinand . Salten uses his experiences with the Archduke and his brothers in history. He carried the material with him for twenty-five years before he dared to write the novel. In 1907 he told Arthur Schnitzler that he was almost finished with the manuscript. In the end, however, it would take until the end of the Habsburg Monarchy before it was completed in 1921.

reception

Salen's biographer Beverley Driver Eddy believes that The Dog of Florence's strength lies in the portrayal of Cambyses the dog - a "brilliant description of a dog's character." Salten himself was a dog lover and owned dogs for most of his life.

Text output

  • Felix Salten: The Dog of Florence . Herz-Verlag, Vienna 1923, DNB  577393995 .
  • Felix Salten: The Hound of Florence: A Novel . Simon and Schuster, New York 1930, OCLC 741939977 (Illustrated by Kurt Wiese . Translated by Huntley Paterson).
  • Felix Salten: The Hound of Florence . Aladdin, New York 2014, ISBN 978-1-4424-8749-9 (Illustrated by Richard Cowdrey. Translated by Huntley Paterson).
  • Felix Salten: Le chien de Florence . Éditions de la Paix, Bruxelles 1952 (Traduit de l'allemand par Maurice Muller-Straus).
  • Felix Salten: Koiramme Firenzessä: Kertomus . Books on Demand GmbH, Helsinki 2016, ISBN 978-952-286-532-8 (translated into Finnish by Markus Lång).

Adaptations

After Felix Salten successfully acquired the American film rights for Bambi in 1937 . Had moved a life story from the forest to the Walt Disney Company (he had previously sold it to Sidney Franklin for $ 1,000 , but was able to persuade him to pass it on), he sold the rights to other books to Disney: The Dog of Florence , The Youth of the Squirrel Perri , Renni the savior and friends from all over the world . While the latter two books were never used in film, the Disney Company adapted the Dog of Florence into a modern setting. In 1959 the movie The Unheimliche Zotti was released .

While the Disney film and its remake from 1994 ( Bundles - A dog to fall in love with ) retain the most succinct elements (youngster turns into a dog through a magic ring), the version from 2006 ( Shaggy Dog - listen, who's barking ) also depends on it and has practically nothing in common with the novel.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Felix Salten: Koiramme Firenzessä . Books on Demand GmbH, Helsinki 2016, ISBN 978-952-330-150-4 (Finnish).
  2. ↑ Felix Salten: The Dog of Florence . Herz-Verlag, Vienna 1923.
  3. ↑ Felix Salten: The Dog of Florence (=  Cotta's Library of Modernity, 42 ). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-608-95400-7 .
  4. ↑ Jürgen Ehness: Felix Salten's narrative work: description and interpretation . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-631-38178-6 , p. 221 .
  5. ↑ Ehness (2002), p. 219.
  6. ^ Beverley Driver Eddy: Felix Salten: Man of Many Faces . Ariadne Press, Riverside (Ca.) 2010, ISBN 978-1-57241-169-2 , pp. 33, 87-89, 131, 195-196, 204-205.
  7. ↑ Eddy (2010), p. 195.
  8. ↑ Eddy (2010), p. 33.

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