Gespensterbuch
The Gespensterbuch (literally 'Ghost Book' or 'Book of Spectres'[1]) is a collection of German ghost stories written by August Apel and Friedrich Laun and published in five volumes between 1810 and 1815. The fifth volume was also published as the first volume of Apel and Laun's Wunderbuch (1815–1818), which served as a continuation of the Gespensterbuch series.
Stories
| Volume | Year | Original title | Literal translation | Author |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1810 | "Der Freischütz" | 'The Freeshooter' | Apel |
| "Das Ideal" | 'The Ideal' | Laun | ||
| "Der Geist des Verstorbenen" | 'The Ghost of the Deceased' | Laun | ||
| "König Pfau" | 'King Peacock' | Apel | ||
| "Die Verwandtschaft mit der Geisterwelt" | 'The Kinship with the Spirit-World' | Laun | ||
| 2 | 1811 | "Die Todtenbraut" | 'The Dead Bride' | Laun |
| "Die Bräutigamsvorschau" | 'The Bridegroom Preview' | Apel | ||
| "Der Todtenkopf" | 'The Death's Head' | Laun | ||
| "Die schwarze Kammer" | 'The Black Chamber' | Apel | ||
| "Das Todesvorzeichen" | 'The Sign of Death' | Laun | ||
| "Der Brautschmuck" | 'The Bridal Jewelry' | Apel | ||
| "Kleine Sagen und Märchen" | 'Little Legends and Tales' | Apel | ||
| 3 | 1811 | "Die Vorbedeutungen" | 'The Portents' | Laun |
| "Klara Montgomery" | 'Klara Montgomery' | Apel | ||
| "Der Gespensterläugner" | 'The Ghost-Deniers' | Laun | ||
| "Das Geisterschloß" | 'The Ghost-Castle' | Apel | ||
| "Der Geisterruf" | 'The Ghost Call' | Apel | ||
| "Der Todtentanz" | 'The Dance of the Dead' | Apel | ||
| 4 | 1811 | "Zwei Neujahrsnächte" | 'Two New Year's Nights' | Apel |
| "Der verhängnisvolle Abend" | 'The Fateful Evening' | Laun | ||
| "Zauberliebe" | 'Magic Love' | Apel | ||
| "Die Braut im Sarge" | 'The Bride in the Coffin' | Laun | ||
| "Das unterirdische Glück" | 'The Underground Luck' | Laun | ||
| 5 | 1815 | "Der Heckethaler" | 'The Hedge Thaler' | Laun |
| "Der Liebesschwur" | 'The Love Oath' | Laun | ||
| "Die Ruine von Paulinzell" | 'The Ruins of Paulinzell' | Apel | ||
| "Die Hausehre" | 'The House-Honour' | Laun | ||
| "Die Schuhe auf den Stangen" | 'The Shoes on the Bars' | Apel | ||
| "Legende" | 'Legend' | Laun | ||
| "Das silberne Fräulein" | 'The Silver Girl' | Apel |
Translation
Following the success of Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz (1821), the Gespensterbuch story that it was based on – also called "Der Freischütz" – was translated into English several times. It was first translated by Thomas De Quincey and published anonymously as "The Fatal Marksman" in Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (1823),[2] followed by "Der Freischütz; or, The Magic Balls" in Mary Diana Dods' Tales of the Wild and the Wonderful (1825), again as "Der Freischutz" in George Godfrey Cunningham's Foreign Tales and Traditions (1829), and anonymously as The Original Legend of Der Freischütz, or the Free Shot (1833).
Several other Gespensterbuch stories were translated in magazines: "Der Todtentanz" as "The Dance of the Dead" in The Literary Magnet (1824), "Das Todesvorzeichen" as "Death Tokens" in The European Magazine (1825), "Klara Mongomery" as "The Veiled Bride" in The Literary Magnet (1825), "Der Geisterruf" as "The Spirit's Summons" in Leigh Hunt's London Journal (1835), "Zwei Neujahrsnächte" as "Two New Year's Nights" in The Court Magazine (1839), and "Die Bräutigamsvorschau" as "Fatal Curiosity" in The New Monthly Belle Assemblée (1845). De Quincey also began a translation of "Der Gespensterläugner" in autumn 1824, but it was never published.[3]
Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès translated fives stories into French for his anthology Fantasmagoriana (1812): "Die Todtenbraut", "Die Verwandtschaft mit der Geisterwelt", "Der Todtenkopf", "Der Geist des Verstorbenen", and "Die schwarze Kammer". The first three of these were then translated from French to English by Sarah Elizabeth Utterson in Tales of the Dead (1813), and again by Marjorie Bowen in Great Tales of Horror (1933) and More Great Tales of Horror (1935). The last two stories were translated into English by A. J. Day, and included together with Utterson's translations in Fantasmagoriana: Tales of the Dead (2005).[4] Robert Pearse Gillies translated the first two directly from the German in German Stories (1826), and Charles John Tibbits produced an abridged translation of the first one in Terrible Tales: German (1891).
"König Pfau" is itself a translation of Madame d'Aulnoy's "La Princesse Rosette" from Les Contes des Fées (1697), which has been translated from the original French into English a number of times as "Princess Rosette".[5]
Influence
Freischütz
The first tale in the first volume is "Der Freischütz", a retelling by Apel of the Freischütz folktale. It formed the inspiration for Weber's opera Der Freischütz (1821).[6]
References
- Van Woudenberg, M. (2020). "Fantasmagoriana: The Cosmopolitan Gothic and Frankenstein". In Townshend, D.; Wright, A. (eds.). The Cambridge History of the Gothic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 41–64. doi:10.1017/9781108561082.003. ISBN 9781108561082. S2CID 225516525.
- Birkhead, Edith (1921). The Tale of Terror: A Study of the Gothic Romance. London: Constable. p. 174.
- Symonds, Barry (1995). De Quincey and his publishers: the letters of Thomas De Quincey to his publishers, and other letters, 1819-1832 (PhD). p. 287. hdl:1842/7387.
- Day, A. J. (2005). Fantasmagoriana: Tales of the Dead. ISBN 1-4116-5291-6.
- Benz, Richard (1908). Märchen-Dichtung der Romantiker (in German). F. A. Perthes. p. 231.
- Friedrich Kind. "Schöpfungsgeschichte des Freischützen". Der Freischütz, Volks-Oper in drei Aufzügen, Göschen, Leipzig, 1843, S. 117–123 (in German).