Sylvie and Bruno

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The Elf King sits on a throne, on his knees Sylvie, a girl with long hair, she wraps her hands around his neck.  Next to it stands Bruno, a little boy, whose shoulder the Elf King puts his hand on.
Frontispiece of the first volume

Sylvie and Bruno ( English original title: Sylvie and Bruno and Sylvie and Bruno Concluded ) is a two-volume novel by the author Lewis Carroll . The first editions were published by Macmillan Publishers in 1889 and 1893 , the two volumes were illustrated by Harry Furniss . The first complete translation into German was done in 1986 by Dieter H. Stündel . The work takes place in two worlds: In the real world, the England of the Victorian Age , a social novel tells of Arthur Forester's love for Lady Muriel, who first becomes engaged to another man. On the other hand, the story takes place in a dream world in which the governor of Anderland and his two elf children Sylvie and Bruno become victims of a conspiracy. The first-person narrator switches back and forth between these two worlds.

Emergence

In the foreword to the second volume, the author gives an insight into the history of the work: In 1867, two short stories, Fairy Sylvie ( Sylvie, die Elbe ) and Bruno's Revenge ( Bruno's revenge ) , appeared in the Aunt Judy's Magazine published by Margaret Gatty . Six years later he had the idea to make these two texts the core of a longer story. He used many dialogues or scenes, which he became a casual observer. When the manuscript was largely finished in early 1885, he commissioned Furniss to do the illustrations. The preparation of the illustrations took years. Due to the expected length, Carroll finally decided in early 1889 to split the work into two volumes. The first volume appeared in December 1889, the second in December 1893.

content

part 1

The action begins in the Outland, in the breakfast salon of the Governor's Palace. The narrator - invisible to the other people - witnesses an angry crowd demonstrating in front of the window, apparently under the instructions of the Lord Chancellor ( lord chancellor ). Bruno briefly enters the room looking for his sister Sylvie. After a speech by the Chancellor and the appearance of the sub-governor ( sub-warden ), the narrator leaves the drawing room to look for Bruno. He and Sylvie find him with their father, the governor ( warden ). He introduces them to the professor who has just returned from a long journey.

The scene changes abruptly, the narrator is in a train compartment on his way to Elfenau ( Elveston ) to visit his friend Doctor Arthur Forester, where he expects to recover from his health. When he accidentally reads the last line of Arthur's letter aloud, a conversation develops with the lady sitting across from him who has the same goal as him. During the conversation he falls asleep again and is back in the breakfast room, where the professor, Sylvie and Bruno, the chancellor and the sub-governor, his wife Tabikat and their son Uggug have now gathered. When the governor enters the drawing room, the chancellor proposes that he convert the post of sub-governor to vice-governor, thus appeasing the crowd. After a brief consultation, he agrees and signs the contract before leaving the country for a longer trip. The sub-governor revealed to his wife that they have tricked the governor and he has signed a contract during his absence Governor Sub issued the extensive powers and enabling him from the people to the Kaiser ( emperor ) choose to leave. A beggar appears to ask for some bread, but Uggug drives him away with a jug of cold water. Sylvie and Bruno feel sorry for him and run after him.

The narrator wakes up again when he and his traveling companion, whose name he can now read Lady Muriel Orme on their luggage, have to change trains in Feenwalde ( Fayfield ). After they are back on the train, he falls asleep again and follows Sylvie and Bruno when the gardener lets them go after the beggar. When they catch up with him, he leads them to a secret room where his appearance changes and they realize that it is their father. He explains to them that he was elected king of Elfenland ( Elfland ), a province of Feenland ( Faryland ), and therefore had to travel there. He shows Sylvie two medallions, a blue one with the inscription "Everyone will love Sylvie" and a red one with "Sylvie will love everyone". She chooses the red one before returning to the palace with her brother.

The narrator wakes up at his destination Elfenau, where he tells his friend Arthur about his new acquaintance. Arthur confesses his love for Lady Muriel. When he falls asleep again, Sylvie and Bruno are back at the palace. A second messenger from Elfenland has also arrived there, the Baron Doppelgeist, from whom the new ruler and his wife learn that the old governor has been appointed king. In order to deceive the baron about the real circumstances, the vice-governor and his wife try to pass their son Uggug off as Bruno. However, the evidence of his talent is always produced exactly when the baron is not looking. When he finally realizes that his room is full of frogs, he leaves angrily. The Sonata Pathétique , which, played by the music teacher, was supposed to show Uggug's alleged musical talent, continues to sound after the narrator wakes up, only Arthur is the piano player.

The following day the narrator visits Lady Muriel and her father, the Earl of Ainslie, with Arthur , during which they discuss weightlessness in free fall. When he later falls asleep again alone on the beach, Sylvie and Bruno are on their way to see their father again, but even he cannot change the situation in the governor's palace. Meanwhile, the Vice Governor and his wife continue to work on the conspiracy. While she has bought a dagger and only calls her husband by alias, he has got two disguises: a court jester and a dancing bear. Uggug sees the two of them trying out their disguise, but they can take it off in time before he returns with the professor. Sylvie and Bruno return and the professor introduces them to the other professor, who recites the long poem "Peter and Paul" for them. At this point Bruno notices the narrator for the first time. He talks to him, much to the confusion of the professor who cannot see anyone. However, he does not ask any further questions because suddenly the other professor has disappeared. When they can't find him even after a search, Sylvie and Bruno ask the professor to go out with them, because the gardener doesn't want to let them out anymore.

At the professor's request, the gardener lets them go. On their way to Elfenland, they spend the night in Hundeland, where the dog king, a huge Newfoundland dog , is grateful for the variety that the two children bring to his everyday life. Sylvie and Bruno finally arrive at the gate to Elfenland. As they walk through it, they turn from pixies ( sprite ) into real elves ( fairy ).

Arthur learns that he has a greater fortune than he previously thought, which puts him financially in a position to propose to Lady Muriel, but he doesn't dare. The narrator returns to London for a while. When he is back in Elfenau, he meets Sylvie, who is helping a beetle back on its feet, and then Bruno. He is mad at his sister for not letting him play until he has finished his chores. He wants to devastate her garden, but the narrator manages to change his mind. This is how the two of them beautify the garden, much to Sylvie's delight. A few days later he meets the two elves again. You promise to visit him in human form soon. With many other residents of Elfenau he goes to a picnic near a castle ruin. The dominant topic of conversation is initially the relationship between art and nature. Finally the narrator falls asleep while Lady Muriel sings a song, instead he hears Bruno sing. When he wakes up again, Muriel's cousin Eric Lindon arrives. Arthur is immediately jealous of him and decides to go back alone. The narrator does not return with the others either, but stays with the ruins for a while. Sylvie, Bruno and the professor appear, they are looking for the way to Anderland. First they ask a passing farmer, then Eric Lindon. Nobody can show them the way, Eric thinks they are crazy.

A week later Arthur and the narrator drop by Lady Muriel's after their church visit. A conversation develops about selfishness and the best form of worship. Sylvie and Bruno appear in the form of children, the narrator introduces them to Lady Muriel and her father.

In Elsewhere, the old governor has since been declared dead after a passing court jester with a dancing bear brought this news, and the vice-governor was elected emperor.

While walking, Arthur and the narrator meet Eric, who is waiting for a telegram. Sylvie and Bruno also reappear in child form. When Bruno is almost run over by an arriving train, Eric saves him at the last moment.

Sylvie and Bruno give the narrator the professor's watch, which he wanted to lend him for some experiments. First he tries to undo an accident by setting the time back, but to no avail. Then he experiences running backwards for an hour. When he meets the Earl, he learns that Eric has received his officer's license and is now officially engaged to Lady Muriel. Arthur decides to go to India.

When the narrator takes one last walk before leaving Elfenau, he falls asleep in the forest. Sylvie and Bruno have a party for the frogs. After a soup, Bruno performs very short scenes from three Shakespeare plays: Hamlet , Macbeth and King Lear . But since he no longer knows the rest of the text after just one sentence, he leaves the stage with a tumble-thump every time. At the end he tells a confusing story. The next day the narrator and Arthur have a final conversation with Lady Muriel, they discuss the Sunday rest and freedom of will.

Volume 2

When the narrator meets Eric Lindon by chance in London, he learns from him that the engagement to Lady Muriel has been broken off and Arthur is still in Elfenau. In Kensington Gardens he meets Sylvie, whom Bruno is currently trying to teach. He decides to travel to Elfenau again as soon as possible.

Already in Feenwalde he meets Lady Muriel, who feels guilty that Eric broke off the engagement because of her different views about God. After a long conversation, the narrator can finally calm her conscience. At Arthur, he discusses with him whether it is justified that people who have inherited great wealth should not have to work and what constitutes real charity. During a walk on the beach they see Lady Muriel. Shy Arthur immediately wants to go in the other direction, but Sylvie, who appears invisible to him, pushes him in her direction, Bruno drives Lady Muriel towards him in the same way. The two children then accompany the narrator, who wants to order milk from a local farmer. They meet the dog king Nero, who catches an apple thief before they reach the courtyard.

After the narrator has ordered his milk from the farmer's wife, they start talking. She complains about the new tavern, which is driving one of her neighbors into alcoholism and his family into financial ruin. Sylvie and Bruno intervene again and prevent Willi from entering the inn. This swears off alcohol.

During a visit to Lady Muriel, she introduces the narrator to a new acquaintance who calls himself My Lord. It is a traveler from a distant land who reports strange things. He tells them about a wallet that has only one surface, like a tiny bottle , about a method of saving time, about trains that are powered solely by gravity , and about special carriages. The narrator learns from the Earl that Arthur and Lady Muriel are to be married in two weeks.

On the evening before the wedding, there is a big party at which Sylvie and Bruno appear again as children. My master is telling strange stories again from a distant country that he allegedly visited, but which in the course of the conversation turns out to be from there himself. Its residents have taken many principles to the extreme. The artificial selection led to people who are lighter than water, to walking sticks that run by themselves and packing material, which is lighter than nothing. The cartography was driven to a 1: 1 scale map , the desire of the universities to have the best students to hunt them down. The principle of dichotomy was carried over by politics with its contrast between government and opposition to other areas of daily life, until finally a war was lost because only half of the army fought while the other tried to prevent it. During the conversation, My Lord seems to sing a song over and over again, but it is the French Count who sings a song that Sylvie and Bruno seem to have brought with them. Finally, the narrator falls asleep several times: first he is there when Sylvie tells Bruno a story, then when the professor sings a lullaby for Bruno. A messenger appears from a fishing village nearby, he reports of a contagious disease that rages there and has now also killed the doctor. Arthur immediately decides to go there and help, even if it means his death. The wedding ceremony takes place in a hurry the next morning before he leaves.

The reader learns of Arthur's death from a newspaper article. Although his body was not identified, one of the dead had a pocket Bible with Lady Muriel's name pressed to his heart.

When the narrator travels to Elfenau again at the end of the year, he meets Lady Muriel in the cemetery. She invites him to tea while they talk about sin. As she accompanies him on the way home, he tells her about his experiences with the elves. Both hear Sylvie and Bruno sing a song about love.

When he falls asleep in his room, he is back in Otherland. There is a party there on Uggug's birthday: First, the professor gives a lecture. When it ends in an explosion, he wakes up. The next day he is back in Anderland, where a banquet is now taking place after the lecture. The other professor sings a song, the story of the pig. The emperor then gives a speech. At first he still boasts and assures the guests present that he rules the country better than the old governor, but suddenly he admits all of his misconduct. At that moment the beggar reappears. The emperor and the empress ask his forgiveness. The beggar turns into the governor and forgives them. When the festival is supposed to continue, it is found that Uggug is missing. You look for him and find that he has turned into a porcupine.

When the narrator wakes up, a messenger calls him to Lady Muriel. There he learns that his friend Arthur, who was believed dead, is still alive after all. Eric Lindon found and cared for him. He sees Sylvie and Bruno with their father one last time. Sylvie realizes that in reality there was only one locket, which, depending on how you look at it, is red or blue with the different inscriptions.

people

Descriptions

teller
The first-person narrator remains nameless. He is a man from London in his 70s. For health reasons - his heart is attacked - he often drives to Elfenau to see his friend Arthur. The action is described through his eyes, through the fact that he is initially invisible in the dream world, he acts there as an omniscient narrator . He cannot be seen in any of the drawings.
Sylvie, a girl with long hair, kneels on the ground and reaches for a beetle that is lying on its back.
Sylvie helps a beetle back on its feet
Sylvie
Sylvie is a gnome of about ten years, later a real Elbe. She has rosy cheeks, curly brown hair and brown eyes. She is described as sweet, lovely, and lively. During her father's absence, she lovingly takes care of her younger brother Bruno, even if he doesn't appreciate her lessons.
A dead mouse is lying on the ground, and Bruno is sitting on it, leaning forward and resting his left hand on his knee.
Bruno is sitting on a dead mouse
Bruno
Bruno is Sylvie's brother, about five years younger than her. Like her, he has brown hair. He loves his sister more than anything, although he doesn't like her classes at all. His utterances are characterized by broken grammar and strange logic.
Arthur
Arthur Forester is a doctor and long-time friend of the narrator. He is a little older than 20 years. The discussions that determine a large part of the plot are mainly driven by his questions and views on morality and religion. His moral ideas are particularly evident when he, without hesitation, risked his life to provide medical help to the sick in the fishing village.
Lady Muriel
Lady Muriel Orme is a little older than 20 years. She is warm and open and cares for the poor. She too has strict moral ideas that she brings into the discussions. It is these ideas that cause her inner conflict after Eric broke off their engagement. Only after a long conversation with the narrator does she feel really free and can develop a relationship with Arthur.
Earl of Ainslie
The earl is Lady Muriel's father. He is an old man, but still mentally very active.
Eric Lindon
Captain, later Major Eric Lindon, is Lady Muriel's cousin and fiance. He's young, tall, and handsome. In contrast to the other people, he does not initially believe in God, but considers religion to be an institution that is primarily aimed at the poor. For this reason, he also breaks the engagement to Lady Muriel. Only when he realizes that he has saved Arthur, who was already believed dead, does he believe.
Sir
My master is an elderly traveler from a distant country with a German accent. His real name remains a mystery, as does any other personal detail. He does not directly deny Bruno's assumption that he is the man in the moon. In his home country he worked as a university professor, but had to go into exile.
governor
The governor of Anderland and later King of Elfenland is the father of Sylvie and Bruno. He is a tall, dignified old man who is described as serious and amiable at the same time. He is a generous ruler who, for example, caused the government-owned bakery to sell bread to the population at particularly low prices during a food shortage.
Sub-governor
Sibimet, the sub-governor of Otherland, later vice-governor and emperor, is the governor's younger brother. He is described as a skinny, suspicious man with a mean, sly face of yellow-green complexion. With the conspiracy, he tried to bring himself to power and use it to his own advantage.
Tabicate
Tabikat is the sub-governor's wife. She is a huge woman with a deep voice. She is extremely stupid. The other characters often allow themselves jokes at their own expense that they don't even perceive as such.
Uggug
Uggug is the son of Sibimet and Tabikat. He is the same age as Sylvie. He is described as obnoxiously fat. His mother pampers him. At the end of the story, he turns into a porcupine because he hasn't experienced enough love.
professor
The professor is court physician in the governor's palace and teacher of Uggug. He suffers from rheumatism . He is described as a fat, short, jolly old man.

Correspondences of the people

Klaus Reichert noted in his dissertation that the important people can all be divided into groups of three. Many of these correspondences result directly from the transformations laid out in the text. When the narrator wakes up, Sylvie transforms into Lady Muriel right at the beginning, and when he falls asleep again, Lady Muriel transforms into Tabikat, the wife of the sub-governor. Reichert justifies other correspondences with a functional equality, for example the governor is Sylvie's father and thus corresponds to the Earl, the father of Lady Muriel. Overall, Reichert lists the following equivalents:

1 2 3
Sylvie Lady Muriel Tabicate
Bruno Arthur Sub-governor
governor Earl Uggug
professor Sir Another professor
Nero Eric Lindon Lord Chancellor

The people in the first group belong to the dream world, but also appear in the real world. The people in the second group live exclusively in the real world, while the third group is at home in the dream world. The people from the real world are idealized by their counterparts in the first group and caricatured by the third group.

Only the narrator, as the only central figure, cannot be split into three people.

Relationship between author and characters

In the afterword to his translation, Stündel points out several parallels between the author and his characters: First of all, the large number of older men who appear: the narrator, the earl, my lord in the real world and the governor and the two professors in the fairy realm . Carroll, too, felt like an old man at the time he was working on this work, as his letters show.

It is also noticeable that many people like Carroll are very shy himself. This is especially true of Arthur, who does not dare to confess his love to Lady Muriel. The narrator has the least amount of speech in most conversations, only when he is alone with Lady Muriel is it he who dominates the conversation with his views. Even the often cheeky Bruno is very shy in some places.

Another agreement can be found in the views expressed by individual characters in the conversations. Although Carroll expressly distances himself from the statements made by his characters in the foreword to the second volume, a few pages later he admits that he agrees with Arthur's view of church services. Other positions expressed can also be found in Carroll's letters.

The last point mentioned by Stündel is the narrator's relationship with Lady Muriel. As he first noticed to Arthur, he loves her as much as Arthur does, only in the great age difference he sees a hindrance. This is equally true of Carroll's relationship with Alice Liddell .

Stündel sees in Bruno, Arthur and the narrator Carroll himself at different stages of life.

Poems

As in Carroll's other works, poetry plays a major role. Two of these poems were later reprinted in the collection of three Sunsets and Other Poems , as Carroll wanted to make them accessible to a wider readership. Originally was The Hunting of the Snark as part of Sylvie and Bruno planned, but with increasing length to Carroll finally decided to publish this nonsense ballad as an independent work.

Introductory poems

Each of the two volumes is preceded by an introductory poem. As Martin Gardner notes, the poem in the first volume is very artfully structured: it is an acrostic , if you read the first letter of each verse, the name of the actress Isa Bowman, she was a friend of Carroll's, emerges. The same name also results from reading the first three letters of each stanza. At the same time, the first stanza ties in with the last stanza of the concluding poem from Throung the Looking-Glass by repeating its rhyming words in reverse order. The poem in the second volume also has a name: Here you have to read the third letter in each case to get Enid Stevens.

Gardener's song

The gardener has very thin limbs, compared to very large feet and protruding hair.  He leads an elephant behind him on a rope.  He walks on his hind legs while he plays a flute with his front legs and carries the gardener's hat over him with his trunk.
The gardener with an elephant playing the flute.

The Gardener's Song is one of Carroll's best-known poems and has been widely parodied. The nine stanzas stretch across both volumes; after the gardener has sung the last stanza, he begins again with the first. The stanzas always take up the current plot. In the foreword of the first volume, Carroll puzzles the readers with the task of finding out in which cases he has adapted the story to the poem, in which cases the poem to the content, and in which cases the agreement happened by chance. He reveals the resolution in the preface to the second volume. The gardener himself denies a connection, but the professor emphasizes several times that all of this really happened to the gardener.

The stanzas are all structured in the same way: They begin with two lines that describe what the gardener thought he saw : “ He thought he saw a ... ” (German: “He thought he saw a ...”) This is mostly about Animals performing an unnatural act, such as an elephant playing the flute. This is followed by two verses in which, on second glance, it turns out that it is something else: “ He looked again, and found it was a… ” (German: “He looked one more time and saw that it was a… . “) Usually there is a transformation into some kind of object, sometimes also into abstract things. The stanzas end with two verses in which the gardener makes a comment.

Four- and three-part iambic verses alternate, with the three shorter verses rhyming with each other.

Peter and Paul

With its 26 stanzas of 8 verses each, the poem Peter and Paul takes up almost the entire space of the chapter of the same name. The other professor recites to Bruno the difference between the two words convenient ( convenient ) and uncomfortable ( inconvenient ) to explain. The poem is about poor Peter. His friend Paul promises to lend him 50 pounds but does not give him the money. Nevertheless, he demands it back from Peter punctually at the appointed time. He sinks into poverty, while Paul boasts of how generous he is to him. Finally, he offers Peter to lend him another 50 pounds, which he finds inconvenient.

Song of love

In A Song of Love is one of the poems in Three Sunsets were reprinted, the title comes from this collection. Together with Lady Muriel, the narrator hears Sylvie and Bruno singing it. In its three stanzas, it describes what love can do. The stanzas all lead to the chorus “ For I think it is love, for I feel it is love, for I'm sure it is nothing but love! ”(German:“ I think it's love, I feel it's love, I know for sure, it's love! ”). Lewis Carroll called this poem his most beautiful.

Tale of the pig and little birds

The story of the pig is presented by the other professor at the banquet after it was announced in the first volume, in which he also sang the first verse. The poem is about a pig that sits by a pump and is sad because it cannot jump. A camel that comes by advises it to walk a long distance every day so that it can lose weight. However, a frog offers him lessons in jumping. The pig tries to imitate the frog, but is seriously injured.

The two parts of the poem are framed by another poem about little birds. Its ten stanzas do not tell a continuous plot, but take up individual motifs from the two volumes and vary them. As in the first volume, in the foreword of the second volume, Carroll asks the reader as a riddle the question in which cases these matches were intentional and in which cases they happened by chance. He promised the resolution for the foreword of a planned book, but he died before it was finished.

Illustrations

Several people stand in front of a door and try to close it while a porcupine pushes out.  On the edge, some people can be seen fleeing in horror.
Uggug transforms into a porcupine.

With two exceptions, the 94 illustrations (including the two frontisps ) are by Harry Furniss. Only the two drawings of the two magic medallions were made by Alice Havers . The illustrations illustrate on the one hand the progression of the plot and on the other hand the content of the longer poems. There are four drawings on Peter and Paul (these were the first drawings made), four on the story of the pig, plus three marginal strips on the little birds, which Carroll emphasizes as particularly successful in the foreword. However, until the drawings showed the figures as the author imagined them, Furniss had to make several attempts. Carroll wrote in a letter to Furniss dated September 1, 1887: “ No! The Doctor won't do at all! … Eric's attitude is capital: but his face is a little too near to the ordinary "masher." Please avoid that inane creature; and please don't cut his hair short. That fashion will be “out” directly. ”(German:“ No! The doctor doesn't work at all! … Eric's posture is great, but his face is a little too close to that of an ordinary “womanizer”. Please avoid this stupid creature; and please don't cut his hair In short, this fashion will be “out” immediately. ”) On the other hand, in the same letter he also praises some illustrations as successful:“ “Uggug becoming Porcupine”… is exactly my conception of it. I expect this will be one of the most effective pictures in the book. … “The Professor” is altogether delightful. When you get the text, you will see that you have hit the very center of the bull's-eye. ”(German:“ Uggug turns into a porcupine ”is exactly what I imagined. I expect this to be one of the most effective images in the book.“ The Professor ”is utterly adorable. When you get the text, you will see that you hit the bull's eye. ")

subjects

In addition to nonsense , which is mainly present in the scenes with Bruno and which is known from earlier works by Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno also deal with serious issues. Carroll writes in the foreword of the first volume: “ It is written […] in the hope of supplying, for the children whom I love, some thoughts that may suit those hours of innocent merriment which are the very life of Childhood; and also in the hope of suggesting, to them and to others, some thoughts that may prove, I would fain hope, not wholly out of harmony with the graver cadences of life. "(German:" It was written in the hope of offering the children I love some thoughts that fit those hours of innocent happiness that make up that very life of childhood; and also in the hope of offering them and others to propose some considerations which, I would like to hope, are not in complete disharmony with the more serious cadences of life. ”) Carroll addresses a number of moral, philosophical and theological questions by letting his characters discuss them. For example Arthur discusses with the narrator what charity is all about.

The large number of quotations from literature, especially the Bible or works by William Shakespeare , Alfred Tennyson and John Milton, is also striking .

Carroll has added an index to both volumes to make it easy for the reader to find the topics covered. The poems are also listed in the registers.

reception

Sylvie and Bruno could not build on the success of Alice. Readers expecting another book in this style were disappointed. However, because of its treatment of selfishness in religion, the work was used in sermons.

The first edition was not fully sold until around 1940. Subsequently, the work was only available in the complete editions. Translations into other languages ​​were also missing for a long time. It was not until 1972 that a translation into French appeared, but it left most of the puns and poems untranslated. The first volume was first translated into German by Michael Walter in 1980 , but the second volume initially remained untranslated. It was not until 1986 that Dieter H. Stündel presented a complete translation of both volumes. In 2006, a revised translation by Walter and Sabine Hübner was published, which now also contained the second volume.

In his essay Sylvie & Bruno, Arno Schmidt described the work as Carroll's “most important (& ergo, apparently, ie‹ in the beginning ›, most complicated) piece” and sees Carroll as the “father of modern literature”. At the same time, however, he also criticizes that "you notice that he just didn't have the time to deal with literature full-time." For him, reality and dream world are not balanced enough to force the transitions, there is no "mutual fertilization". On the other hand, he praises: "In contrast, the all-diligent, super-diligent grouting of both hemispheres seems masterly." He also made the suggestion to put the book in several columns to show the changes between the different levels. Walter later followed this suggestion with his translation.

In Kindler's New Literature Lexicon , Horst Meller attests to the work “a series of amusing bravura passages”, but finds that it “primarily suffers from being overburdened with seriously intended and long-winded sentimental inserts.” Florian Balke, on the other hand, describes in his review in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Sylvie and Bruno as an “unknown masterpiece” and “modern work of art” and comes to the conclusion that the book “deserves the attention of all readers who have nothing against crankiness and want to laugh again heartily”.

literature

Web links

Commons : Sylvie and Bruno  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. The table of contents follows in the names of the translation of Stündel, the original English name is given in brackets when it appears for the first time.
  2. Klaus Reicher: Lewis Carroll. Munich, 1974, p. 54. Quoted from Stündel's afterword to his translation.
  3. ^ Lewis Carroll: Three Sunsets and Other Poems. Macmillan, London, 1898. ( Three Sunsets and other Poems in Project Gutenberg ( currently not generally available for users from Germany ) )
  4. ^ Henry Holiday: The Snark's Significance. In: Academy. 29 January 1898.
  5. Martin Gardner : The Universe in a Handkerchief. P. 5.
  6. Examples:
  7. ^ Martin Gardner: The Annotated Alice. CN Potter, New York, 1960. (Foreword, also reprinted in later editions)
  8. ^ A b Stuart Dodgson Collingwood: The Life and Letters Of Lewis Carroll. Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1-4179-2625-2 . ( The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll in Project Gutenberg ( currently usually not available for users from Germany ) )
  9. August A. Imholtz, Jr .: Indexer nascitur, non fit - Lewis Carroll as indexer again. In: The Indexer. Vol. 20, no.1, April 1996. ( online )
  10. ^ Stephanie Lovett Stoffel: Lewis Carroll in Wonderland. Thames & Hudson, 1997, ISBN 0-500-30075-5 , p. 124.
  11. ^ Arno Schmidt: Sylvie & Bruno. Greetings to the father of modern literature! In: From Julian days. Pp. 209-233. Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main, October 1979. ISBN 3-596-21926-4 .
  12. Horst Meller: Sylvie and Bruno. In: Kindlers New Literature Lexicon. (CD-ROM) Munich 2000, ISBN 3-634-99900-4 .
  13. Florian Balke: I don't know what it should mean. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 17, 2008. Quoted from: Sylvie and Bruno on buecher.de