Booklet

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Some German dime novels of the early 20th century

Heftroman (also called Groschenroman or Groschenheft , in English Dime Novel ) describes a form of trivial literature . These are novels in DIN A5 format that were published in inexpensive booklet form in large editions and were intended as cheap consumer goods, and accordingly they were and are mostly offered in magazine stores.

The term Groschenhefte and Groschenroman comes from a time when they cost one or more groschen . Today, novels published in booklet form cost between one and five euros. The format exists mainly in German-speaking countries; in the United States e.g. B. the corresponding market segment is now filled by cheap paperbacks .

Novel booklet

A booklet or booklet is a stapled novel in DIN C5 format . It appears in weekly or biweekly intervals in newsagents and therefore does not have an ISBN . A novel booklet always has about 64 pages (exception: novels by Hedwig Courths-Mahler and the double volumes of the 1980s) and is printed in two columns. The paper is bleached thin and environmentally friendly, the price of 1.60 to 2.20 euros is still low today.

Pocket booklet

Pocket notebooks are novels that have been produced with adhesive binding in the DIN B6 format and whose features roughly correspond to today's paperbacks, whereby much thinner cover paper is usually used. The distribution channel differs from paperbacks in that the paperbacks are not available from bookshops. Therefore, as is usual with magazines, the frequency of publication is several weeks and not monthly. Pocket books cost around five euros and are also referred to as dime novels.

history

This type of literature spread early on, first as single-sheet printing and later in the form of simple brochures. The genre was created through translations of Italian and French as well as some ancient sources, with the subjects of love and adventure being a focus. At that time, the so-called “folk books” were printed on cheap, blotter-like paper and the product was then sold for little money at fairs. These folk books enabled a multitude of old legends and fairy tales to survive . These booklets offered children and adults humorous and instructive, exciting and sad stories, served for edification as well as entertainment and thus covered a wide range of topics.

In the course of time, the popular books fell more and more into oblivion, but were brought back to life by the German Romantics in the 19th century.

From the middle of the 19th century, magazine novels in the form of mostly weekly printed products can be found on the book and magazine market in most European countries and in North America. In England and North America they were referred to as Penny Dreadfuls or Dime Novels , analogous to the German term , in Germany the terms railway literature or (on the part of publishers) conversation and travel literature were also used in the 19th century . Penny novels initially appeared in "large format" (quart), later in octave or duodec format . Corresponding to the print sheet , they were 24 or 32 pages long, and later also from 50 to 100 pages. Some of the booklets were richly illustrated. A colored cover picture, which depicted a dramatic scene and was provided with a sensational subline, was striking. In the Anglo-American language area, the term Pulp Fiction has also established itself , which indicates the inferior paper quality of the booklets.

The years between 1905 and 1914 were the heyday of the German booklet novel. Neither before this time nor afterwards there there have been so many booklet series and comparably high print runs. During this time, the magazine novels with their series heroes could finally prevail. Before 1914 around 100 issue series appeared in Germany. Three publishers dominated : the publishing house for folk literature and art (Berlin), the Dresden Roman publishing house and the publishing house for modern reading (Berlin).

The “collections” or “library series” can be named as further forerunners of the Groschenhefte . They were and are mostly written by authors who write anonymously or under a pseudonym , or by writing collectives according to standardized guidelines depending on the genre. They are available in a wide variety of subject areas, so-called women's or doctor novels such as B. " The Mountain Doctor ", "Dr. Stefan Frank “etc., fate, mountain / homeland, castle novels , but also crime novels , science fiction , fantasy , horror , Der Landser or wild west novels ( westerns ). Some of these series of novels have a continuous storyline that connects the individual novels (e.g. Perry Rhodan ). Several successful novels were made into films ( Jerry Cotton ) or went on air as a television series ( John Sinclair ).

Literary classification

The booklet novel belongs to trivial literature , a genre of stereotypes and simple linguistic means, which sometimes leads to the entire genre being labeled as " trash literature ". For reasons of business policy, publishers have to rely on tried and tested concepts. Forms and contents are specifically reproduced and little varied. Due to the low price and the high circulation, originality, which can increase the risks in marketing, usually plays a subordinate role. So that authors can be replaced if necessary, the framework is often given in the form of a series expose in which recurring characters, previous stories and dramaturgical templates are specified.

Notebook novels appear today as series and as series . Usually the focus of a series is a hero who always has new adventures to face. In the German-speaking countries, various series managed to achieve cult status with this concept . These include the suspense novel classic Buffalo Bill , “the hero of the wild west”, Heinz Brandt the Foreign Legionnaire , the magazine series Rolf Torring , Nick Carter , Hans Warren , Jack Morlan , “America's greatest detective”, Nat Pinkerton and later the science fiction series Perry Rhodan , the crime series about FBI agent Jerry Cotton or the ghost crime series Ghostbusters John Sinclair . In the romance area , the doctor novels in particular appear as series (for example Dr. Stefan Frank , Dr. Norden or Der Bergdoktor ).

Series of magazines, on the other hand, frame self-contained stories on a specific topic. Such series are predominantly found in the area of ​​romance novels. In the princely novel, for example, a new story from the world of the nobility is told every week. Another example of this are the homeland novels set in the Bavarian or Austrian mountains. These romances always follow the same dramaturgy and allow two other potential lovers to meet each other. These come into conflict, love seems irretrievably destroyed; however, the conflict is resolved because one or both of them fight for love, and in the end one promises eternal loyalty to one another.

In addition to the controversial Landser series, mainly western novels appear in the adventure theme . Well-known authors who initially earned their living with magazine novels and later became known in other literary contexts are: Wolfgang Hohlbein , Karl May (=  Kolportage author), Stefan Wolf , Hedwig Courths-Mahler , Horst Bosetzky , Anna Basener and many others . Numerous well-known Anglo-American authors published pulp fiction at some point in their career , including Isaac Asimov , William S. Burroughs , Raymond Chandler , Philip K. Dick , CS Forester , F. Scott Fitzgerald , Robert A. Heinlein , Rudyard Kipling , Jack London , Upton Sinclair or Tennessee Williams .

See also

literature

  • Anna Basener : Write and publish magazine novels. Authors' House Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86671-074-0 .
  • Heinz J. Galle: Groschenhefte. The history of German trivial literature. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-548-36556-6 .
  • Heinz J. Galle: Popular Reading. Groschenhefte, Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls from the years 1850 to 1950. University and City Library, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-931596-19-2 ( Small writings of the University and City Library Cologne 10), exhibition catalog.
  • Heinz J. Galle: Folk books and book novels. Forays into popular entertainment literature for over 100 years. DvR, Lüneburg 2005-2006,
  • Hans-Otto Hügel : Praise the mainstream. Herbert von Halem Verlag, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-938258-15-6 , pp. 246-271.
  • Thomas König Geisterwald catalog. Bibliography of the German booklet novels. König, Berlin 2000–2009,
  • Dieter Sürig: Lucky for 1.80. Yes, the booklet still exists. It appears weekly, usually has 64 pages and is free of unpleasant surprises. The happy ending comes to the finale, that's for sure. Something like this sells millions of times, as before. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung from 18./19. March 2017, p. 32 (full-page report on the topic)
  • For further literature see article Kolportageroman
  • Peter Wanjek: The German booklet novel . A handbook of the novel booklets published in the German Reich between 1900 and 1945 , Wilfersdorf (Ganzbiller) 1994.

Web links

Wiktionary: Groschenheft  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Booklet  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anna Basener: Write and publish booklet novels . Authors' House Publishing House, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86671-074-0