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First German Reader ; a Beginners Dual Language Book
Specially chosen for their power to evoke German life and culture, these short, simple readings include poems, stories, essays, and anecdotes by Goethe, Hesse, Heine, Schiller, and others.
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First published December 10, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 25, 2020
Thoroughly charming. The negative-to-mixed reviews of the book here make sense, and are valid in their way. Dover Books produced a series of these language texts in the 1960s, of which this is a direct reprint, and its designation as "designed expressly for the beginning German language student" challenges us in 2020. Back in 1964, it could be assumed that most language learners in the UK and US had grown up with education in English grammar (which we don't receive now in the same way), perhaps some basic Romance language study at school, and - if one was planning to visit Europe - an expectation that you would be interested in the literary and cultural aspects of the language, rather than just the functional ones. Additionally, a language student could expect to do several hours a week with good focus on grammar. Nowadays, by comparison, a student might do two hours a week at a community college or online program with a focus on functional, tourism-centered sentences, and a pedagogic framework aimed at immersing you directly in the language without the need to learn those tiresome words like "subjunctive", "genitive", and "preposition".
In other words, it's undeniable that this text no longer seems like it could be interpreted by someone who started learning German three weeks ago.
But if you're a serious student with some knowledge of grammar, this has an old-fashioned, literary elegance about it. The 52 excerpts herein are by authors who were dead, and largely out-of-copyright, by 1952, including Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Lessing, and the Brothers Grimm. Texts range from short poems to essays on philosophy, each with an accompanying English translation on the facing page. In the back are short notes where required and a series of comprehension questions (in German) with answers. Finally, there is a brief glossary.
Again, I grasp the argument of critical reviews, who don't think Dover should have republished this as a beginner's textbook. But for me, those critical elements don't really apply. If your only purpose in learning German is to get by in Berlin on a two-week holiday, or you're just keen to pick up the basics, then of course: don't buy this book. However, as someone who is at the B1 level of reading, this has proven a welcome reprieve from simplistic texts about Faust or the Alps which one finds in modern readers. It is a challenge, to discover so early in this book various archaic and abbreviated forms, and of course countless technical nouns and verbs with which I am unfamiliar. The fact that many of these texts are from previous centuries adds to the burden. In that sense, it is rather like asking a newcomer to the English language to learn by studying Wordsworth or Shakespeare! (The latter of whom is featured here, in translation.) But with the aid of the facing English text and the glossary, I am enjoying working through these challenges. My aim in German is to be able to be fluent when visiting the country and eventually to read great literature and plays, so why not challenge myself early on?
Dover's books are a reminder that language has a history and an importance beyond utilitarian communication. There are so many readers available for the modern learner, so this proves a satisfying variation on the theme.
In other words, it's undeniable that this text no longer seems like it could be interpreted by someone who started learning German three weeks ago.
But if you're a serious student with some knowledge of grammar, this has an old-fashioned, literary elegance about it. The 52 excerpts herein are by authors who were dead, and largely out-of-copyright, by 1952, including Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Lessing, and the Brothers Grimm. Texts range from short poems to essays on philosophy, each with an accompanying English translation on the facing page. In the back are short notes where required and a series of comprehension questions (in German) with answers. Finally, there is a brief glossary.
Again, I grasp the argument of critical reviews, who don't think Dover should have republished this as a beginner's textbook. But for me, those critical elements don't really apply. If your only purpose in learning German is to get by in Berlin on a two-week holiday, or you're just keen to pick up the basics, then of course: don't buy this book. However, as someone who is at the B1 level of reading, this has proven a welcome reprieve from simplistic texts about Faust or the Alps which one finds in modern readers. It is a challenge, to discover so early in this book various archaic and abbreviated forms, and of course countless technical nouns and verbs with which I am unfamiliar. The fact that many of these texts are from previous centuries adds to the burden. In that sense, it is rather like asking a newcomer to the English language to learn by studying Wordsworth or Shakespeare! (The latter of whom is featured here, in translation.) But with the aid of the facing English text and the glossary, I am enjoying working through these challenges. My aim in German is to be able to be fluent when visiting the country and eventually to read great literature and plays, so why not challenge myself early on?
Dover's books are a reminder that language has a history and an importance beyond utilitarian communication. There are so many readers available for the modern learner, so this proves a satisfying variation on the theme.
April 15, 2015
Despite the abundance of texts procured from the likes of Goethe, and some useful original passages written on topics such as Germany's culture and history, this is a wonderful book for stunting your progress in the German language and your sense of interest in German culture.
Firstly, the poems. They're all the same. Perhaps the beauty of poetry is only accessible to those well-acquainted with its medium language, but apart from the possibility that this is merely the 'curse of the German spirit' (the penchant for lofty, grandiose statements), the poems are all about the same damned thing -- death, nature, the sublime, all cast in a hallowed, fragile light, designed to invoke in you your higher feelings, so much so that they end up telling you about as much about the world as the same 5 seconds of Beethoven's symphony no.9 they use on the radio for announcements and interludes. So much about poetry rendering the world anew.
Firstly, the poems. They're all the same. Perhaps the beauty of poetry is only accessible to those well-acquainted with its medium language, but apart from the possibility that this is merely the 'curse of the German spirit' (the penchant for lofty, grandiose statements), the poems are all about the same damned thing -- death, nature, the sublime, all cast in a hallowed, fragile light, designed to invoke in you your higher feelings, so much so that they end up telling you about as much about the world as the same 5 seconds of Beethoven's symphony no.9 they use on the radio for announcements and interludes. So much about poetry rendering the world anew.
January 20, 2020
A curious volume. Harder than one would expect for a "first German reader" and only really appropriate for someone who already knows how all the tenses, voices and moods. Some of the poetry in particular is very difficult; in the second line of the entire book there is an archaic form and the smattering of such throughout is not ideal for a "beginner". The translations are sometimes, annoyingly, not strictly literal, and the dictionary at the back doesn't seem to have been based on a consistent policy regarding whether to include words found in the excerpts at a given level of obscurity. That said, however, many of the passages, particularly the prose ones, are very rewarding, and I would far rather learn by reading Goethe et al than some inane purpose-written book, and I'll use others in the series in the future.
April 19, 2017
I FINALLY finished this! Honestly, the last couple ones were a blur. This collection was just ok, but I wouldn't recommend it as a good text for a fellow language-learner. This collection is composed of just random writings from beginning to end. I feel as a learner of German it makes learning and recall for vocabulary unhelpful, as the levels of each text where all over the place to me.
December 4, 2014
This book not only helps you learn German it informs you of the history of Germany, Germanic philosophy and economic situations, of 1964 anyway, the story of Bach, an interesting account of the Germanic language history and how the language elements are constructed. Furthermore it contains many poems of interest, mostly philosophical but accessible which is nice!, and short stories or fables with morals laced throughout all from German writers and thinkers. Including Goethe, The Brothers Grimm, Herman Hesse, Nietzsche, a very interesting account of kant's life. So even if you are not wanting to learn the German language I would still recommend this book as there is a lot of German history and indeed Western philosophy and ways of thinking within this collection all brought together.
August 16, 2010
1964 ed.
December 22, 2019
Such a ridiculous book! The cover claims this is "a beginner's dual-language book," and the foreword goes on to assert that the "First German Reader is truly a beginners' book. It may be started after two or three weeks of experience with an introductory book to German." Poppycock! Not only is the level of German grammar and vocabulary quite advanced, but the language of many of the texts is archaic. Already on the first page we read, in a text by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781), "[die Tiere] gafften, sie staunten, sie bewunderten und brachen in entzückendes Lob aus. Bald aber wandten die besten und geselligsgten mitleidsvoll ihre Blicke ab und seufzten..." Definitely not first month German vocab.
The idea of an anthology of literary texts for learning German is nice, but as I've attempted to learn different languages over the years, I've come to realize there's a problem built into the format. The ideal is that when reading a book, it's matched to your ability such that you can infer the meaning of new words through context, and then they get reinforced as they resurface later in the text. When reading a long form text on a consistent subject or relating a unified story, the odds of having the same vocabulary and turns of phrase recurring are higher than in an anthology that collects different topics and authors from different eras. So for example in this book, towards the end, one 4-page story used the word "ein Gauner" for "a crook," which shows up nowhere else in the book, and so I forgot it as soon as I finished reading it (well, until looking it up again to write this).
The only thing that makes this book readable is the dual-language format; the translations are excellent, mirroring the German as closely to word-for-word as possible, so it's easy to glance over and get a definition for an unfamiliar word. I'm inspired to attempt a bilingual edition of a single, longer text maybe Kafka. But first I'm going to downshift and make sure I can make it through all of the German kids' books that are laying around my house.
The most consistent, least archaic, and therefore, for me, most useful texts were presumably written by the editor, Harry Steinhauer, as no other author is given. These are a series of essays "Über Deutschland" and on other cultural topics such as German philosophy or little bios of figures like Goethe. Similar bios of Kant, Luther, and Bach were written by Walter Bauer. Not only did the direct, relatively contemporary style of these provide some consistency of vocabulary and tone, but the subject matter, especially Luther and Bach, happens to be relevant to my interests. The older poems by folks like Goethe, Hölderlin, Schiller, and Heine were more of a slog, and I can't say I was immediately astounded by their innate and profound beauty, but at least Heine was familiar to me from having studied the text of Schumann's Dichterliebe over the summer, so I had a bit of context for all this talk of Liebeswonne and Träne über die Wange and such.
The excerpts here didn't make the case for Goethe for me. I had always assumed that if I just got good enough at German, love of Goethe would naturally ensue, but he sure comes across as a fussy boor. (This did not stop me from setting one of the brief excerpts here, beginning "Was ist heilig?" to music, however.)
This book is an "unabridged republication of the edition published by Bantam Books, Inc., New York, 1964," and as such contains some historical quirks, such as a discussion of East vs. West Germany. It's clearly a product of its time, but that does not make the noxious sexism of a text such as the excerpt from Paul Ernst's Komödianten- und Spitzbubengeschichten, any less squirm-inducing. And one of the "Über Deutschland" sections contained a very uncomfortably defiant bit about how the Germans have already experienced enough guilt about World War II, essentially suggesting that we should just get over it and move on, but in 2019 it's clear that the forces of fascism and anti-Semitism are far from being definitively vanquished.
In the end, it was almost out of spite that I forced myself to finish this "beginner" book. Maybe I'll come back to it in a few years when my German is finally good enough.
As a sad postscript, I picked up this book while browsing the shelves of Schoenhof's the amazing foreign language bookstore in Harvard Square, which used to be one of my favorite things to do. They sadly closed the doors of their brick and mortar store in 2017. I've only lived in the neighborhood less than a decade, but already I'm lamenting the loss of local character as developers snatch up real estate and force out independent retailers (with Curious George another casualty earlier this year). Support your local businesses while you can! http://www.schoenhofs.com/About-Us_ep...
The idea of an anthology of literary texts for learning German is nice, but as I've attempted to learn different languages over the years, I've come to realize there's a problem built into the format. The ideal is that when reading a book, it's matched to your ability such that you can infer the meaning of new words through context, and then they get reinforced as they resurface later in the text. When reading a long form text on a consistent subject or relating a unified story, the odds of having the same vocabulary and turns of phrase recurring are higher than in an anthology that collects different topics and authors from different eras. So for example in this book, towards the end, one 4-page story used the word "ein Gauner" for "a crook," which shows up nowhere else in the book, and so I forgot it as soon as I finished reading it (well, until looking it up again to write this).
The only thing that makes this book readable is the dual-language format; the translations are excellent, mirroring the German as closely to word-for-word as possible, so it's easy to glance over and get a definition for an unfamiliar word. I'm inspired to attempt a bilingual edition of a single, longer text maybe Kafka. But first I'm going to downshift and make sure I can make it through all of the German kids' books that are laying around my house.
The most consistent, least archaic, and therefore, for me, most useful texts were presumably written by the editor, Harry Steinhauer, as no other author is given. These are a series of essays "Über Deutschland" and on other cultural topics such as German philosophy or little bios of figures like Goethe. Similar bios of Kant, Luther, and Bach were written by Walter Bauer. Not only did the direct, relatively contemporary style of these provide some consistency of vocabulary and tone, but the subject matter, especially Luther and Bach, happens to be relevant to my interests. The older poems by folks like Goethe, Hölderlin, Schiller, and Heine were more of a slog, and I can't say I was immediately astounded by their innate and profound beauty, but at least Heine was familiar to me from having studied the text of Schumann's Dichterliebe over the summer, so I had a bit of context for all this talk of Liebeswonne and Träne über die Wange and such.
The excerpts here didn't make the case for Goethe for me. I had always assumed that if I just got good enough at German, love of Goethe would naturally ensue, but he sure comes across as a fussy boor. (This did not stop me from setting one of the brief excerpts here, beginning "Was ist heilig?" to music, however.)
This book is an "unabridged republication of the edition published by Bantam Books, Inc., New York, 1964," and as such contains some historical quirks, such as a discussion of East vs. West Germany. It's clearly a product of its time, but that does not make the noxious sexism of a text such as the excerpt from Paul Ernst's Komödianten- und Spitzbubengeschichten, any less squirm-inducing. And one of the "Über Deutschland" sections contained a very uncomfortably defiant bit about how the Germans have already experienced enough guilt about World War II, essentially suggesting that we should just get over it and move on, but in 2019 it's clear that the forces of fascism and anti-Semitism are far from being definitively vanquished.
In the end, it was almost out of spite that I forced myself to finish this "beginner" book. Maybe I'll come back to it in a few years when my German is finally good enough.
As a sad postscript, I picked up this book while browsing the shelves of Schoenhof's the amazing foreign language bookstore in Harvard Square, which used to be one of my favorite things to do. They sadly closed the doors of their brick and mortar store in 2017. I've only lived in the neighborhood less than a decade, but already I'm lamenting the loss of local character as developers snatch up real estate and force out independent retailers (with Curious George another casualty earlier this year). Support your local businesses while you can! http://www.schoenhofs.com/About-Us_ep...
September 1, 2017
This is by no means what is normally imagined as a "first" reader. It matches an old-fashioned language learning practice: instead of treating the student like an idiot and withhold all deeper knowledge from him or her when it is "not the time", this book wants to urge the student to plunge right into real use of the language after a bit of knowledge on grammar.
Therefore, you are not supposed to have known most of the vocabulary when you read this; it is quite normal to stumble. With the help of the facing English translation, which is usually both literal and straightforward, an attentive reader can easily figure out the meaning of the words even without much foreknowledge. The exercise of reading is mostly concerned with figuring out the structure of sentences, and the customs of expression in German language.
It is also good that the texts are arranged in an order of steadily increasing difficulty. The only disadvantage I found with the book is that some of the articles are a bit too pretentious in presentation (e.g. those of Goethe), containing unusual conjunctions and outdated phrases that one cannot find in a contemporary dictionary. This is partly due to the fact that the paragraphs are brought out of their original context, but still in practice they may threat the adaptability of the book as a reader.
Therefore, you are not supposed to have known most of the vocabulary when you read this; it is quite normal to stumble. With the help of the facing English translation, which is usually both literal and straightforward, an attentive reader can easily figure out the meaning of the words even without much foreknowledge. The exercise of reading is mostly concerned with figuring out the structure of sentences, and the customs of expression in German language.
It is also good that the texts are arranged in an order of steadily increasing difficulty. The only disadvantage I found with the book is that some of the articles are a bit too pretentious in presentation (e.g. those of Goethe), containing unusual conjunctions and outdated phrases that one cannot find in a contemporary dictionary. This is partly due to the fact that the paragraphs are brought out of their original context, but still in practice they may threat the adaptability of the book as a reader.
September 19, 2021
A book containing few selections of the works of famous German writers.
It is a great book to have as it can familiarise german (language) learners on some works of famous German writers and contains a well and accurate translation on the opposite pages so as you read along, any words of phrases you aren't familiar with can be found in their English translation.
But in my opinion this isn't a book I would recomend for a beginner on the German language. As I said, it contains a selection of works by classic German writers and their work consists of vocabulary, grammar and play on words that modern day German doesn't use so for a beginner in German (language) this book would be pretty difficult.
I would recomend this book for more intermediate or advanced German (language) learners.
It is a great book to have as it can familiarise german (language) learners on some works of famous German writers and contains a well and accurate translation on the opposite pages so as you read along, any words of phrases you aren't familiar with can be found in their English translation.
But in my opinion this isn't a book I would recomend for a beginner on the German language. As I said, it contains a selection of works by classic German writers and their work consists of vocabulary, grammar and play on words that modern day German doesn't use so for a beginner in German (language) this book would be pretty difficult.
I would recomend this book for more intermediate or advanced German (language) learners.
June 10, 2021
Good for the abundance of texts from famous authors, but the reader will notice from the first text that the language will be at a B2 level. Not enjoyable for someone who is still learning basic grammar structure and vocabulary.
May 9, 2015
This is a fantastic beginning reader. The parallel-text translation makes each text easy to understand without having to constantly flip through a dictionary. What I like most about this reader is that the texts cover a variety of topics that are genuinely interesting to think, talk, and write about. It's led to some great conversations with my German-speaking friends. There are some great quotable lines, and many useful words and phrases (although some of the vocabulary might be a bit old-fashioned).
October 14, 2010
Excellent collection for newbies -- a much more enjoyable method for absorbing new vocabulary than lists of words. The material is somewhat old (first published in the 50s) but it's interesting to read about then-current notions of national identity and the political situation. Also includes a large number of brief readings by great German authors from Schiller to Goethe to Nietzsche to Brecht.
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November 21, 2009None
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