the horse a novel review
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“The Rider on the White Horse” begins as a ghost story. A traveler along the coast of the North Sea is caught in dangerously rough weather. Offshore he glimpses a spectral rider rising and plunging in the wind and rain. Taking shelter at an inn, the traveler mentions the apparition, and the local schoolmaster volunteers a story.
The story is both simple and subtle, and its peculiar power is to surprise us slowly. It is a story of determination, of a young man, Hauke Haien, living in a remote community (Storm depicts the village with the luminous precision of a Vermeer), who is out to make a name for himself and to remake his world. It is a story of devotion and disappointment, of pettiness and superstition, of spiritual pride and ultimate desolation, and of the beauty and indifference of the natural world. It is a story that opens up in the end to uncover the foundation of savagery on which human society rests.
Theodor Storm’s great novella, which will remind readers of the work of Thomas Hardy, is one of the supreme masterpieces of German literature. It is here limpidly translated by the American poet James Wright, along with seven other shorter works, including the lyrical love story “Immensee.”
Publisher : NYRB Classics; Main edition (January 27, 2009)
Language : English
Paperback : 288 pages
ISBN-10 : 1590173015
ISBN-13 : 978-1590173015
Item Weight : 10.2 ounces
Dimensions : 5.05 x 0.59 x 7.97 inches
Reviewer: Gio
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Fury of the North Sea
Review: If you've managed to pass several semesters of college German, you've almost certainly encountered Theodor Storm (1817-1888) in the original. He's as venerated a classic of German literature as Maupassant of French or Turgenev of Russian, and like those two masters, his finest works were 'novellas' -- long short stories with certain formal structural elements. Storm was extremely well-known to American and English readers in the 19th Century, but his fame has faded during the 20th. This translation of eight of his fifty-plus stories, including his acknowledged masterpiece "Der Schimmelreiter - The Rider on the White Horse", by the American poet James Wright, makes a convincing case that Storm's work is still worth reading.Like Goethe, Storm spent much of his energy in public life. He was a jurist by training. As a young 'nationalist' on behalf of the German-speaking population of Danish-governed Schleswig, Storm was vociferous enough to get exiled to Prussia, and then to a mountain village in Thuringia, where he worked as a judge and wrote many of his novellas. In 1864, Prussia seized control of Schleswig and Storm hurried home to be acclaimed as "Landsvogt" in his native region, an administrative position responsible for civil order and justice. Eventually, despite personal tragedies, he rose to the position of Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals.No one ever wrote love stories more redolent of spring blossoms and sunshine than Theodor Storm. His prose in such tales is as mellow as vintage Riesling. For a man with feet planted stoutly in the running of life in the present, Storm had a musician's ear for the language of nostalgia. The closest comparison in American literature might be to Washington Irving or Nathaniel Hawthorne, without the nagging Puritan guilt. Once in a while, mystery verging on the supernatural colors some of Storm's scenes, and even more rarely a trace of mockery of rustic life appears. After the gentle climate of Storm's early stories, however, in The Rider on the White Horse, he lives up to his surname. That ninety page story is set among the dikes and dunes of Frisia, on the edge of the North Sea; it portrays the indefatigable struggle of folk against the fury of waves and weather, to preserve their hard-won reclaimed soil. It's also a kind of Faust/Prometheus story, of a man who triumphs and loses in the same act. It's a powerful, passionate story, one of the most evocative in any language.
Reviewer: purplecrayon88
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Good Impression of the Period
Review: Not a bad little story, if you're into Nineteenth century German fiction. I prefer Stifter, but that's probably a matter of taste.
Reviewer: Frank Donnelly
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An Interesting And Entertaining Novella
Review: âThe Rider on the White Horseâ is a very interesting and entertaining novella composed In the late nineteenth century. It is definitely not a light reading experience. It is set in Frisia and originally written in German. The writing style is consistent with other fiction from Europe in the late 1800s. There is a dark supernatural aspect to this story. It commanded my full attention. I both listened to an audiobook and read the kindle copy simultaneously. I often listen to lighter fiction on an audiobook whilst commuting. I did not do spin this case as the writing is often too intricate and involved.If I have ever read any fiction by Theodor Storm I have forgotten that. I am glad to learn about him. I am familiar with Frisia. It was really interesting to read about life in this area from the late nineteenth century. On the whole, I found this a very satisfactory reading and learning experience. However I stress this is NOT a light work. Thank Youâ¦
Reviewer: Carolyn Dell Patrick
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Three Stars
Review: interestingly different
Reviewer: R. Johnson
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Book Club Read
Review: Read this for book club. Lived in northern Germany so it was easy to see the countryside throughout the story.
Reviewer: Chris Nielsen
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Contents
Review: I wish Amazon would list the contents of books containing short stories. Here are the contents of this NYRB volume:In the Great Hall (1848)Immensee (1849)A Green Leaf (1850)In the Sunlight (1854)Veronika (1861)In St. Jurgen (1867)Aquis Submersus (1875-76)The Rider on the White Horse (1868-88)
Reviewer: K. Michael
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not a favorite
Review: Difficult to get through.
Reviewer: joanne m dyer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: translation
Review: The story is timeless. It evokes the era, the atmosphere and the traditions. The translation needs editing! There are errors of sentence structure, spelling and usage.
Reviewer: Novelblue
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: An author not familiar to me but famed as early exponent of the novella form. A story of one man's fight against resistance to his innovative vision in a fenland community. Also a story of belief in the supernatural which gives a dark foreboding tone.I was happy with the translation although I have no familiarity with the original German.
Reviewer: Chopin
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Buried somewhere deep here is, I suspect, a marvellous book. However, it's concealed in thick layers of an absolutely dire translation. I got so desperate I started highlighting the mistakes. A great shame. As I say, there's a powerful, moving novel here and also one with a unique and fascinating geographical setting (North Frisia). However, I can't recommend this edition. Perhaps there are better translations available.
Reviewer: D. C. Jackson
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is a 1964 translation by James Wright that suffers from the benefits of present-day research into the history, culture and environment of North Friesland, consequently offering the reader nothing in the way of meaningful notes to the text and maps of the region to enhance the work. 'The Dykemaster' (1996), an up-to-date translation of the same work, offers the reader a scholarly introduction, extensive notes to the text, and maps relating to the specific region described by Storm's masterpiece. ( In equestrian terms, there is no such horse as a 'white horse'. A 'white horse' is known as 'a grey'.).