A Sad Affair

by Wolfgang Koeppen, Michael Hofmann

Banned by the Nazis in 1936 for its frank sexual themes, Wolfgang Koeppen's first novel has at last appeared in the English language. A romance that anticipated Beat literature by nearly twenty years through its dizzying language and exploration of casual love, this is Koeppen's most hilarious work, one that evokes Mann's Tonio Kruger. Set during the heady, pre-World War II days of cabaret-era Germany, the novel centers around Sibylle—a stunning seductress who balances her love affairs with five men at once—and Friedrich, the callow, melancholic youth who obsessively pursues her.


In a stranger-than-fiction turn, Sibylle Scholoss, on whom the character of Sibylle is (very) loosely based, is now in her nineties and living in Manhattan. This publication enables us to celebrate not only the extraordinary renaissance of one of Germany's greatest twentieth-century writers but also the meteoric stage career of a German actress whose career was thwarted in its prime.

Genres: Germany, Fiction, German Literature

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Wolfgang Arthur Reinhold Koeppen (June 23, 1906 – March 15, 1996) was a German novelist and one of the best known German authors of the post-war period.
Koeppen was born out of wedlock in Greifswald, Pomerania to Marie Köppen, a seamstress who also worked as a prompter at the Greifswald theater. He did not have contact with his father, ophthalmologist Reinhold Halben, who never formally accepted the fatherhood. In 1920, Koeppen left Greifswald permanently, and after 20 years of moving about, settled in Munich, living there the remainder of his life.
He started out as a journalist. In 1934 his first novel appeared while he was in the Netherlands. In 1947, Koeppen received a book contract to rewrite the memoirs of the philatelist and Holocaust survivor Jakob Littner (born 1883 in Budapest, died 1950 in New York City). The resulting novel caused some controversy based on whether Koeppen was given a written manuscript to guide his work on Littner, and the novel never sold well. In 1992, a new edition was published, which led to the discovery of Littner's original text. In 2000, Littner's original manuscript was published in English and in 2002, in German.
In 1951, Koeppen had published his novel Tauben im Gras (Pigeons on the Grass), which utilized a stream of consciousness literary technique and is considered a significant work of German-language literature by Germany's foremost literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki. "Das Treibhaus" (1953) was translated into English as "The Hothouse" (2001) and was named a Notable Book by the "New York Times" and one of the Best Books of the Year by the "Los Angeles Times." Koeppen's last major novel Der Tod in Rom (Death in Rome) was published in 1954. In the ensuing years, Koeppen found it difficult to complete longer works.

Between 1962 and 1987, Koeppen received numerous literary prizes in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1962 he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize.

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compared to Koeppen's dark and complex post-war Trilogy of Failure - of which Death In Rome remains one of my top three German novels of all time - this, his first work, felt like a completely different writer. I wouldn't go as far as to say this is a humorous novel, but there is certainly nothing sad about it, despite the title. A Sad Affair reads like an intimate satire on the obsessive nature of love, and features a bit of a prick tease in Sibylle, an actress in a bohemian theatre troupe, who enjoys the attention of various men, none more so than the young Friederich, whose emotional and tormented mind in regards to the idea of perfected love and desire stops him from getting his leg over with her, after he travels from Germany to Zurich to, hopefully, reignite their would-be love - we get interspersed flashbacks to their early relationship too . On discovering she is having affairs with others, including an army officer and the theatre owner, he tries to temp her away with a trip to Italy, of which she agrees to meet him at the train station at a given time, only to send her friend, Anja, in her place. The finale, which sees Sibylle and Friederich together in Venice, felt like the perfect place to close the novel. The writing was really impressive, and is told with a blend of stream of consciousness and narrative voice from Friederich's perspective; also Sibylle's towards the end. Banned by The Third Reich, for what I would say was more to do with its decadence, and the fact it features a non-Aryan relationship, rather than any sexual content - basically, Sibylle flashes some bare thigh because she wasn't wearing her tights, and that's about it.

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Koeppens Trilogie des Scheiterns (Tauben im Gras, Der Tod in Rom und Das Treibhaus) zählt zu den Höhepunkten der Nachkriegsliteratur. Damals waren diese Werke zu modern. Sie wurden erst in den 70er Jahren unter dem Einfluss von Marcel Reich-Ranicki wieder entdeckt und geschätzt. Für Koeppen war das zu spät, er ist dem Suff verfallen und hat danach nichts erwähnenswertes mehr geschrieben. Vor diesem Hintergrund war es interessant, Koeppens Erstlingswerk zu lesen.

Eine unglückliche Liebe ist stark autobiographisch geprägt. Koeppen verarbeitet hier seine unglückliche - da nicht erwiderte - Liebe zu der Schauspielerin Sybille Schloß, im Roman nur Sybille genannt. Friedrich, der Protagonist, fährt ins namentlich nicht genannte Zürich, um seine Große Liebe, die mäßig erfolgreiche Schauspielerin Sybille davon zu überzeugen, mit ihm zu leben. In Rückblenden wird sein erfolgloses Werben um sie in Deutschland geschildert. Durch einen Trick reist er nicht mit Sybille sondern der russischen Exilantin Ania weiter nach Italien. Sie kann ihn nicht über Sybille hinwegtrösten. Mit ihr verbringt er einige Tage in Rom und Neapel, wo er sie an einen Japaner verliert. Auf der Rückreise reagiert Sybille doch auf sein telegrafisches Werben und trifft in in Venedig, wo sie einige schöne aber nur freundschaftliche Tage verbringen. Friedrich erkennt die Erfolglosigkeit seines Werbens und fährt alleine weiter nach Dubrovnik (Ragusa).

Die Handlung ist belanglos, auch teilweise überstilisiert und kann nicht überzeugen. Was indes bereits da ist, ist der unvergleichliche Koeppen-Stil. Schnelle Schnittfolgen, wie in einem Film. Szenenwechsel und Parallelhandlungen, da damals völlig neu in der Literatur waren. Was auch gefällt ist die Rom und Neapel Handlung mit Ania. Hier wird einiges vorweggenommen, das später beim Tod in Rom verarbeitet wird (die armen Kinder, die Pädosexuellen).

[Armin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Manche Favoriten aus der Jugendzeit werden später fade, einige so-so-lala-Romane von früher gewinnen mit mehr Lebens- und Leseerfahrung an Tiefe und Profil. Das unverhoffte Wiederlesen mit Koeppens unglücklicher Liebe, denn ich hatte das erste mal von Anno 1989 vollkommen verdrängt, änderte nicht viel an meiner Einschätzung von damals. Auch wenn ich seinerzeit erst eine jener seltsamen Affären hinter mir hatte, die Koeppen hier zu seinem Erstlingsroman auswalzt.
So lange man drin steckt, erscheint einem jedes Detail bedeutend, unter dem Eindruck dieser unglücklichen Liebe bin ich froh, dass ich mich nie für wichtig genug genommen habe, gleich einen ganzen Roman daraus zu machen.
Literaturhistorische Bewertung: Nachgeburt der Neuen Sachlichkeit mit allerlei Brocken Fin-de-Siecle Dekadanz. Jede einzelne Seite hat etwas für sich, aber Koeppen in erster Linie das Talent die Geduld des Lesers überzustrapazieren, die Plotsubstanz reicht maximal für ein Viertel des Umfangs, Tonio Kröger ist nicht die schlechteste Vergleichsgröße, auch wenn ein paar Brocken Tod in Venedig in der Suppe schwimmen.
Anno 1989 war Robert Musil das Maß aller Dinge für mich, das gelegentlich brillante, aber schlecht ausbalancierte Riesenfragment Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften ist mitlerweile auf drei Stern abgestürzt, um den Abstand herzustellen, müsste Koeppens unglückliche Liebe auf einen Stern herabgestuft werden. Aber kurze Roman langweilt zwar auf die Dauer und natürlich verdient nutzlose Langeweile immer einen Stern, aber das Buch ist halt irgendwie neusachlicher Durchschnitt, den ich mir kein drittes mal antun muss.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Sad Affair is a lyrical novel about an obsessive affair of an intense young man (poor but educated) for an ideal girl, Sibylle. The young man, Friedrich, is passionate, but his ideal often indifferent to his advances. That does not prevent this from being a fascinating tale, made better by an author who, according to the translator, is "in love with writing". In spite of this love of writing Koeppen wrote just a few novels, the best of which is Death in Rome.

[Pascale · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A Sad Affair" is the story of the doomed relationship between Friedrich and the impossibly attractive young flirt Sibylle. Early on, out of a mixture of naivety and pride, Friedrich vows not to take Sibylle against her will, although the girl sleeps around with more or less anyone who doesn't love her. Friedrich thereby gets himself boxed into the role of peerless friend. His impeccable conduct spurs Sibylle to countless acts of emotional cruelty towards him, her commitment to her own freedom preventing her from admitting to herself - let alone to Friedrich - that she is in love with him. Friedrich follows her to an unnamed foreign city (Zurich according to the translator) where she performs a variety act with a number of Russian people who no longer have passports and live in fear of deportation. Only Anja, who has managed to marry the Swiss citizen Magnus, has secure status. Friedrich tries to convince Sibylle to accompany him to Italy. Sibylle plays a dirty trick on him by swapping places with Anja, who fancies an all expenses paid trip to Italy. Later on, Anja, to Friedrich's relief, sails on to Japan. Bored with Zurich, Sibylle joins Friedrich in Venice where they kiss for the first time. However, since Sibylle won't give herself to Friedrich, their checkmate stays in place and their affair remains unconsummated. The book has its moments and is much lighter in tone than what Koeppen wrote after WWII but it's hardly a lost classic.

[Cariba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erinnert mich an mich in meinen verblödetesten Tagen

[Jill Bowman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can see where this is well written - but these people bored me! I just kept thinking about what book I would read when I was through with this one. Yawn...

[Kris McCracken · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sad affair indeed. What the central character sees in the woman is beyond me! Sibylle, the seductress who balances love affairs between multiple men seems a bore, and the callow young man who we follow in his fawning after (pursuit is far too strong a word) seems utterly unsympathetic to this reader. It makes the entire effort seem rather less than worthwhile.

Perhaps one for the unjaded.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fail. Boring, meandering, directionless. In a sense, though, a remarkable accomplishment: it takes a uniquely talented writer to create a fabric of boredom out of Berlin cabaret culture of the feverish inter-war years. Sometimes authors languish in obscurity for very good reasons.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will be quite short: A divine story about love, lust and yearning.