Beyond the tweed

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Beyond the Tweed (Subtitle: Pictures and Letters from Scotland ) is a travel report by Theodor Fontane . It was first published in 1860.

Fontane's trip to Scotland 1858
1 Train ride from London to Edinburgh
2 - 10 Edinburgh
11 Linlithgow
12 Excursus: Battle of Flodden Field (not part of the trip)
13 Boat trip to Stirling
14th Stirling
15th Loch Katrine
16 Perth
17th Carriage ride to Inverness
18th Inverness
19th Culloden Moor
20th Excursus: The last highland chief
21st Shipping on the Caledonian Canal
22nd Oban
23 Staffa
24 Iona
25th Drive from Oban to Loch Lomond
26th Loch Leven Castle
27 Melrose Abbey
28 Abbotsford
(29) Firth of Tay Bridge (not part of the trip or book); Subject of Fontane's ballad Die Brück 'am Tay

shape

The book contains 28 chapters as well as a "preliminary note" and a "Scottish history table" by the author.

Name of the book

The Tweed is the border river between England and Scotland in eastern Great Britain . Fontane justified the choice of the shortened word "beyond" instead of "beyond" as follows:

"One must leave out the s in the hereafter, which makes it easier to pronounce."

- Theodor Fontane

content

Beyond the Tweed is about a trip to Scotland that Fontane made with his friend, the writer Bernhard von Lepel , in the summer of 1858. Fontane describes the course of the trip chronologically. From London they travel to the Scottish capital Edinburgh . The first 13 chapters take place there. From there the route heads north and approximately counterclockwise to the city of Stirling , Lake Loch Katrine , the cities of Perth and Inverness , the Culloden Moor , the Caledonian Canal , to Oban on the Scottish west coast, the Inner Hebrides - Islands of Staffa and Iona and Lake Loch Lomond . Finally Edinburgh is reached again. The last two chapters are about visits to Melrose Abbey and Abbotsford in southern Scotland.

Fontane mainly describes historical events. He often refers to Sir Walter Scott , a Scottish author of period novels , but also to works by other authors, such as the tragedy Macbeth by William Shakespeare , which are set in the regions traveled through.

The book contains numerous black and white illustrations, mostly contemporary engravings with depictions of historical sites.

background

Fontane lived in London from 1855 to 1859 as a foreign correspondent for the Central Office for Press Affairs . From there, at the age of 40, he traveled to Scotland. Originally he wanted to take a cure during this period, but it was not approved. After Fontane left England in 1859, he never returned to the United Kingdom .

In the same year Fontane began to write the walks through the Mark Brandenburg . In the following year, Jenseit des Tweed and the anthology From England appeared .

Reception of the travel report

“[...] that he wrote his most personal book with his book about the journey, Beyond the Tweed . Personally insofar as he spread an almost inexhaustible historical detailed and anecdotal knowledge almost without regard to the previous knowledge and the receptivity of the reader. The response in the reviews was nevertheless good; but what was quoted from this book as a report and travel section that was technically remarkable later was mostly only the foreshadows on his return to Prussia and on the hikes through the Mark Brandenburg . "

- Helmuth Nürnberger

Editions

German editions

In 1859 Fontane collected his travelogues about Scotland under the name Beyond the Tweed . The book was offered to the publishing house Lorck in Leipzig , but rejected. The Berlin publisher Springer accepted the book in March 1860.

  • Beyond the Tweed - Pictures and Letters from Scotland. Springer, Berlin 1860 (the chapter on Lochleven Castle was forgotten).
  • Beyond the Tweed - Pictures and Letters from Scotland. Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1974.
  • Beyond the Tweed - Pictures and Letters from Scotland. 2nd Edition. Insel, Frankfurt 1991, ISBN 978-3458327660 .
  • Wanderings through England and Scotland. 3. Edition. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1998, ISBN 978-3373004745 (anthology, combined with travel reports from England).
  • Beyond the Tweed - Pictures and Letters from Scotland. 6th edition. Structure, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3746652863 .
  • Beyond the Tweed - Pictures and Letters from Scotland. Edited by Maren Ermisch in collaboration with the Theodor Fontane-Arbeitsstelle , University of Göttingen. Structure, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-351-03137-4 .

Further editions

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Fontane: Beyond the Tweed. Insel, Frankfurt 1989, ISBN 3-458-32766-5 , p. 2 (inner blurb)
  2. ^ Helmuth Nürnberger : Theodor Fontane . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1968, ISBN 978-3458327660 , p. 87.
  3. ^ Helmuth Nürnberger: Theodor Fontane . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1968, ISBN 978-3458327660 , pp. 87, 89.
  4. ^ Helmuth Nürnberger: Theodor Fontane . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1968, ISBN 978-3458327660 , p. 95