Bright Magic: Stories

by Alfred Döblin, Damion Searls (Translator), Günter Grass (Introduction)

Alfred Döblin’s many imposing novels, above all Berlin Alexanderplatz, have established him as one of the titans of modern German literature. This collection of his stories —astonishingly, the first ever to appear in English—shows him to have been a master of short fiction too.

Bright Magic includes all of Döblin’s first book, The Murder of a Buttercup, a work of savage brilliance and a landmark of literary expressionism, as well as two longer stories composed in the 1940s, when he lived in exile in Southern California. The early collection is full of mind-bending and sexually charged narratives, from the dizzying descent into madness that has made the title story one of the most anthologized of German stories to “She Who Helped,” where mortality roams the streets of nineteenth-­century Manhattan with a white borzoi and a quiet smile, and “The Ballerina and the Body,” which describes a terrible duel to the death. Of the two later stories, “Materialism, A Fable,” in which news of humanity’s soulless doctrines reaches the animals, elements, and the molecules themselves, is especially delightful.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, German Literature, Germany, Literature, 20th Century, Classics

264 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2016

About the author

Bruno Alfred Döblin (August 10, 1878 – June 26, 1957) was a German novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known for his novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929). A prolific writer whose œuvre spans more than half a century and a wide variety of literary movements and styles, Döblin is one of the most important figures of German literary modernism. His complete works comprise over a dozen novels ranging in genre from historical novels to science fiction to novels about the modern metropolis; several dramas, radio plays, and screenplays; a true crime story; a travel account; two book-length philosophical treatises; scores of essays on politics, religion, art, and society; and numerous letters — his complete works, republished by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag and Fischer Verlag, span more than thirty volumes. His first published novel, Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lung (The Three Leaps of Wang Lun), appeared in 1915 and his final novel, Hamlet oder Die lange Nacht nimmt ein Ende (Tales of a Long Night) was published in 1956, one year before his death.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the first English translation of Alfred Döblin's short stories and novellas (from2016), well, not all of Döblin's shorter fiction by any stretch of the imagination, but basically about twenty or so selected tales (and indeed, all the other English language renditions of Alfred Döblin's shorter writing I have been able to locate to date, they do seem to be of only one specific story, mostly of Die Tänzerin und der Leib, of The Ballerina and the Body), Damion Searls has on the whole (and in my humble opinion) done very nice, a very decent job thematically with regard to Bright Magic: Stories, as he, as Searls most definitely relays the contents and the general philosophies, the viewpoints of Döblin's German language texts both realistically and concisely (and thus, if to and for a potential reader, it only maters whether Searls' translation factually and informationally mirrors Alfred Döblin correctly and flawlessly, then in my humble opinion, Bright Magic: Stories one hundred percent does without a doubt achieve this particular goal).

But no, I personally just cannot really consider how Damion Searls has with regard to especially stylistics translated Alfred Döblin's short stories and novellas in Bright Magic: Stories as being all that readable and also not really something which I would consider successfully captures and retains Döblin's Expressionist sparkle, as showing the author's actual spirit and writing style, leaving me profoundly textually disappointed and also making me feel rather bored and frustrated reading in particular those Alfred Döblin stories that are personal favourites of mine in their German originals. Thus, while with for example both The Ballerina and the Body (Die Tänzerin und der Leib) and The Murder of a Buttercup (Die Ermordung einer Butterblume), Damion Searls in Bright Magic: Stories certainly (and as already alluded to previously) gets the story details themselves right, I also do not feel any Expressionist storytelling magic AT ALL from Searls's translation and that the descriptive wonder of Alfred Döblin's original German narratives is for that reason stylistically rather majorly missing in action so to speak. And indeed, this is actually the case with ALL of the selected and included stories of Bright Magic: Stories but I guess that I have noticed this the most strongly in The Ballerina and the Body and The Murder of a Buttercup because I have ALWAYS oh so much adored them in German and consider both tales as not only huge personal favourites but as also being literary precursors to Alfred Döblin's brilliant Berlin Alexanderplatz.

And yes indeed, this annoying and very noticeable absence of textual oomph and that Damion Searls never really manages to capture what Alfred Döblin's writing is (in my opinion and for me) like with regard to style, word building, metaphors and textual wonder in this, in his English language translation, that is indeed the main reason for me rating for Bright Magic: Stories with only two stars at best, although I of course a bit grudgingly perhaps do appreciate that Bright Magic: Stories exists, that there is now a translation of some of Döblin's short stories and novellas available in English. But honestly, if you are fluent enough in German, I would definitely recommend Alfred Döblin's shorter fiction in the original and to not bother with Damion Searls' thematically accurate but stylistically dry and stagnant English language translations (as they absolutely do not really ever capture Döblin's descriptive and often visceral written brilliance, and also that the introduction to Bright Magic: Stories by Nobel laureate Günter Grass is basically just a personal celebration of himself, although Grass does mention once or twice that Alfred Döblin's work and in particular his Berlin Alexanderplatz have been major influences for his oeuvre and in particular for Grass' Danzig Trilogy, and especially The Tin Drum, Die Blechtrommel).

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

"One medium cackled, seemingly possessed by a prehistoric chicken."

A fine collection of crazy tales. Döblin is an author who falls into that category of the fun and indefinable. He is often labeled Expressionist, but he comes across as more like a very sarcastic, free-wheeling literary anarchist in my opinion and thus beyond labels.
The stories have quite a wide range of feel and genre. There are fable-like fairy tales, stuffy middle-classers who murder flowers, lovely Death as coffin-maker's assistant, gullible gynecologists, weird pajamas, and crafty spiritualists. These are all great. However, the crown jewel here is the fable "Materialism" which shows us what happens to Nature when humanity's joyless scientificism trickles down to the plant and animal (and atomic level!) kingdoms. They all revolt against the natural order since their existences are no longer bound by their past meaning. Prisons turn into butter, bullets decide to not fire, and the cows deliver gasoline, not milk.
Genius!

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the purpose of a 'selected works' is to whet appetites for more, this gets a gold star. From his earlier, more discursive and disturbing stuff, to the wartime quirky Calvino-esques, to the late gonzo absurdities (those last five incomprehensibles!), I'm now curious to pick up anything Doblin did at any point in his career. Too bad so much is untranslated or out-of-print. Mr Searls or NYRB or whomever, please bring us more AD.

[Jonfaith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deep chords of naturalism brush against supernatural themes. I appreciated the construction of the stories but found myself immune to affect.

Doblin remains an odd author for me. I’m not sure about my response. Much too cloudy to be vogue for this reappraisal. Let me think further.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absurdism sometimes hits the mark for me, and sometimes not. Two of the stories I found amusing. Here's one of them, in its entirety (from a final section titled "Five Incomprehensible Stories"):

What People Mean by Cow's Cheese

To gain clarity on the matter, renowned intellectual Gregor Gregorovich opened one of his books and read:

In the spring of 480 Before Christ, Xerxes the King of Persia set out to subjugate the Greeks. He threw a bridge across the Hellespont and crossed it with a mighty army, more than two million people, including women and noncombatants. At the same time, a Persian fleet consisting of 1,200 ships dropped anchor along the Thracian coast. The Persians and Greeks clashed in several battles: at Salamis, Thermopylae, Plataea, and Mycale. The Persians were annihilated.

All due respect for the deeds of the Greeks notwithstanding, Gregor Gregorovich did not see how this would be of any help to him in the question of cow's cheese and therefore regretfully closed the book.

///

It reminds me of Thomas Bernhard's terrific collection of tiny stories, The Voice Imitator. These are the latest stories in the book, dating from 1947-48; the earliest were written beginning in 1904.

The other is Memoirs of a Jaded Man, original title Die Memoiren des Blasierten (blasiert means blasé). Here, a man goes in search of love, what it is, how to find it, beginning his investigations first with men of government, industry, and finance. "I am naturally drawn to women, to all women, and even more to everything that woman is," he tells us. He is affectionate toward little girls and babies. But very soon his "feeling for women took on a darker cast"; menstruation, childbirth, and motherhood makes them pitiable. He finds a girl and "launched myself upon women, determined to love." Following the advice of friends, "I said and did to her several things that I had often had occasion to observe. I was soon thereby able to awaken in her the impression that I loved her." One of the things involved in love is "tightly pressing one's own limbs as a whole against those of the opponent." The girl assures the narrator that he loves her, this confuses him and he asks her "what had given her that idea and what supported this claim of hers." He becomes disenchanted with his search for love. "Women need to shut up. I am in favor of a well-trained tribe of whores; in the present circumstances, it is as necessary to found whore academies as it is to lay new railroad tracks." The story ends a few pages later with the man verging on psychosis (or perhaps already there).

One of the best known stories is The Murder of a Buttercup, which I found painfully silly. In the story, a man destroys a buttercup and is haunted by his action for months.

[Andrew]

At first, I was a bit nonplussed. These were early stories, and I didn’t get any of the freewheeling brilliance of Berlin Alexanderplatz. And yet each story became a little bit better crafted, until they were downright brilliant. By his middle period he was hitting his stride, and damn these stories are fun, with a little of the old Calvino fabulism in them. Those weirdo bits at the end? Not so sure, but if you liked Berlin Alexanderplatz, seriously check this out, you’ll probably find something to love.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alfred Doblin, best known for his Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929, is also the author of a strange collection of stories entitled Bright Magic: Stories. This is an unusual collection, as it is evenly split between a series of expressionistic stories published in 1912, and several more recent stories published years later.

The expressionistic stories (I give them three stars) are typical of the period and rather strange to modern eyes, whereas the later stories are rather droll, especially the two long ones, "Traffic with the Beyond" and "Materialism: A Fable."

The earlier story is about an attempt to solve the murder of a rich brewer using a séance. What happens is that the spirits are, in their own way, conducting a séance of the living, when they are being apropos in their communications at all.

In "Materialism: A Fable," Nature achieves a level of self consciousness which makes it question what it has been doing all these millenia. Why must light travel at 186,000 miles a second? Why should sugar and cream mix with hot coffee? Why should not waterfalls extend languidly over the edge?

[Illiterate · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shorts. Often expressionist. Often gothic. No wonder I don’t enjoy them.

[Chuck LoPresti · Rating 5 out of 5]

In parts, this was a difficult read - not because of its size but because it's sometimes so dream-like that it can be hard to follow. If you've witnessed an articulate child upon waking tell you their dreams in intense detail - this is a somewhat similar experience. If this is expressionism - it's more like Kokoschka than Kiefer in that it stays rooted in nature and avoids sheer aleatory stream of conscious style expression. Causality is the constant theme and events are placed in sequence to examine relationships of thoughts. You might find a similar experience in the paintings of Kirchner for example....purple + mountain or yellow + trees for example. Not completely abstract but instead something illuminated by contrast. Animism is another constant theme and at frequent intervals it reads like a conversation between a Catholic scholar and a Buddhist monk. These stories are mostly lighter vibe than Berlin Alexanderplatz but the depth of thought and sheer beauty of prose is consistent. This is a very powerful mind at work and his individuality is refreshing. Like music - if you like something when you hear it once - fine - but if you really love it - you'll be back time and again. I have read some of these short works multiple times and they become much more tuneful on repeat interactions. Apart from two short scenes, Doblin's year spent working with MGM in Hollywood was a failure, marked by frequent rejections because it was deemed "beyond the scope of production capabilities". If his work ever falls into the the right hands in Hollywood or Svankmajer's studio - his magic might rightfully see the light of day again.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of Berlin Alexanderplatz and I enjoyed Karl and Rosa but the stories here are very different and much less appealing. Doblin was part of the Expressionist literary movement (though there seems to be disagreement as to the degree he was involved or even accepted by its core) and the pre-war stories are in that mold, thin, semi-surreal and, in some cases, concerned with matters horrific and supernatural. They’re amusing enough but unexciting. Somehow Doblin came through the war and his exile from Nazi Germany with a conversion to conservative Catholicism and his postwar stories — the second part of the collection — strongly reflects this. One of them, an almost novel-length satire called “Materialism: A Fable,” is funny in spots but almost embarrassing in others for its ham-fisted attack on rationality. Interesting mostly as footnotes to his tremendous novels, the work here is sadly lacking by comparison.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've long said that Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz is not only my favorite work of German literature but also one of my all time favorite books. I've been eager to explore more of his works and among some of the larger texts I've acquired, I thought this short collection of stories would be a good next step.

Bright Magic is a collection of short stories released by NYRB back in 2016, anticipation of their edition of Berlin Alexanderplatz. These stories span the career of Döblin from his early work in the 1910s to the 1940s. I love getting to read a career spanning short story collection like this but unfortunately I felt ultimately underwhelmed with what was presented to me.

This collection is a bit strange in terms of its flow of curation. The stories are organized in chronological order but that doesn't exactly make for a great reading experience. The first hundred pages are all stories from Döblin's first book die ermordung einer butterblume und andere erzählungen (The Murder of a Buttercup). It certainly is interesting to see where Döblin started and having this collection finally in English is a joy for anglophonic Döblin fans but it personally wasn't that enjoyable to me.

There were a few stories from this collection that I enjoyed but I was rather indifferent to most of them. I think the main component to my indifference is that the surreal, magical realism elements of these stories are not what I enjoyed most from Döblin. What I truly loved about Berlin Alexanderplatz is the gritty narrative and detailed descriptions of Weimar era Berlin. There were moments of surrealism in Berlin Alexanderplatz that I remember enjoying but those were more in my favor as they paced out the narrative in a nice way and offered an interesting counterbalance to the harsh realism. Reading all stories of the otherworldly just felt like an over indulgence for my tastes.

That being said, I did find I enjoyed the book more as it moved along. The second hundred pages are two stories that allow Döblin to explore these surrealist and magical realism moments in greater detail. Particularly, I enjoyed the story Traffic With The Beyond as it was a fun exploration of spirituality and the occult which felt very in line with the works of Edgar Allen Poe and other Gothic iconography.

Similar to Science Fiction short stories, I often have a hard time with short stories of surrealism and magical realism. This is mainly due to the limited page count allocated to world building to establish what otherworldly elements can and cannot exist. Often by the time I'm acclimated to this world I find that the story has reached its end.

This collection ends with some of my favorite stories here, which is a real shame since they only consist of less than 10 pages of the entire book. These stories come from a 1948 collection entitled Incomprehensible Stories. These very brief stories have a lighthearted and absurdist tone that feel very in line with the works of Richard Brautigan, I'd be interested to see if he ever took interest in the works of Döblin. After reading this I'm most interested in seeing what else from this Incomprehensible Stories collection exists.

I should also mention I'm reading from an ARC copy I came across. It is missing a few elements, one of which being the introduction by Günter Grass, something I'd wish I could have read as Döblin is certainly an influence of Grass and this introduction may have offered more insight into the value of this collection on a grander scale.

Overall, I just found this to be a bit of a mess to read. A collection of his first book, two 50 page stories, and then a few brief absurdist stories. I think if you are a Döblin completionist or die hard fan this collection is worth your time but if you are looking for an introduction or a casual reading experience this isn't the place.

[Charles Beauregard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories. Many of them seem to reflect on pathology or various forms of psychosis, which fits with Doblins profession as a psychiatric doctor. He had a blinding imagination.

[Literati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very very odd and macabre stories. Some definitely more brilliant then others, but a proliferation of new ideas, jokes about the occult and poking fun at society from a variety of angles.

[Jacob Hurley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Outtakes from Berlin Alexanderplatz, more or less. The early stories are forceful but sometimes presented with a bit of an amateurish bravado, pessimistic tales with dramatic expressionist finales. The late novellas resemble Faustus and the Sleepwalkers, a pair of tales that take common themes from German literary history and present them in contradictory, sometimes nonsensical ways, written as the country was destroying itself. Unclear if there's much here not better and more strikingly done elsewhere, often by Doeblin himself.

[Stef Smulders · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tried the first three stories, didn't like them. Cannot identify, do not see the sense of them. Dull and distant staccato style. Bleh.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wildly inconsistent. Doblin's tales of humankind's absurd place in nature are passionately told, and manically described, but for every grotesque Poe inspired tale, or eerily prescient psychological expressionist portrait, there's a thudding bore of an experiment. Still, makes me desperately want to read one of his novels. The man seemed willing to try anything (even the absurdist paragraph fiction that Daniil Kharms perfected!)

[John Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of what qualifies in the way things can qualify for the title of Magical Realist.
Very German stuff, not exactly happy, but...not soul crushing in the way I rather expected it to be. Probably not worth buying, but worth checking out from the library...
A good book to add to your collection of NYRB publications.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The early tales are fine examples od modern German expessionism. Much of the thematic contentsrevolve around sexuality, madness, criminality in mixed urban settings. In general, matters of life and death in the modern age. The later tales continue with these themes; but, in other sylistic ways. The humor found in our "modern" ways shines through more than in the earlier writings.

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early Stories: 3.5, Late Stories 4.5. Bemused by/Betwixt/ the parentheses.

[Kevin Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like Doeblin, but I wouldn't recommend this collection. These experimental shorts have poetic beauty, but a prose that lacks plot eventually leaves readers apathetic.

[Cock Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The two "bright magic" stories were excellent

[Ted J. Gibbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

'What People Mean By Cow's Cheese' is essentially 20th Century German Expressionist shitposting and it made me lol

[Lila Rosen · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Ballerina and the Body" was my favorite I give that one a 5/5

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

*no comments as yet* i MAY go back to this Review & fill it in

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5) Bright magic, indeed. These tales are so playfully weird and mysteriously incongruous, they seem to be invented or translated by a Google supercomputer. I'm a fan of Fassbender's adaptation of Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz, but these are totally different, perhaps sharing that glimmer of black humor and irony. The early tales often miss the mark, but they get stronger as the collection progresses. "The Other Man" is the perfect mix of absurd and social commentary, reflecting the mirror back on misogyny. (Doblin's repeatedly paints unflattering portraits of women, maybe unique for his time.) "Traffic with the Beyond" is also a mesmerizing historical piece with supernatural and crime elements. "Materialism, A Fable" is inspired by Democritus' atoms, Aesop's fables, and attributes of surrealism to create scenarios in which waterfalls reverse course, grass attacks Buddhists, and tornadoes deliver kids to school.

[Max Eichelberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this book once in 2019, and I see my annotations in the copy. I don’t remember any of the stories, however I remember two or three of my annotations. Is it narcissism to only remember myself?

I don’t remember a single thing from September 9 to September 11, 2019. I was still at my sister’s house then, reading many books. I worked for NOAA, the government shutdown was a month or two away. I may have read this book on my lunch break.

I reread it just now over a long night and morning. The first story is my favorite, I’m fond of the image created by a cushion of wave drowning the Brazilian. The stories are evocative of Sade’s Gothic Stories. Did all Europeans try their hand at macabre shorts?

The Lowland Brewery opened today.

[Virginia Serna · Rating 3 out of 5]

strange, disturbing stories . some I could not finish, but others caught my attention and I finished. some se

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

maybe 2.5 . the later stuff was better, particularly "materialism, a fable"

[The Literary Chick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tiny gems of beautiful, nightmarish, surrealistic fairy tales/vignettes. Twisted. By the author of Berlin Alexanderplatz. Never read anything like them.