German Writing, American Reading: Women and the Import of Fiction, 1866–1917 by Lynne Tatlock (review)

With this monograph, Lynne Tatlock brings a variety of approaches to bear on a new topic: the surprisingly large number of—today mainly unknown—German-language novels by women which were widely read in America in English translation during the period 1866 to 1917. She assembles information and employs methodologies from a number of fields, including translation studies, the history of reading and publishing, transnational and cultural transfer studies, textual criticism, reception theory, women and gender studies, research into popular and domestic literature, and more. She looks into the social and economic backgrounds of the writers of these works in Germany, and in addition into the circumstances in America that led to their popularity; and she shows which specifically German or nationalistic topics struck a chord or were overlooked in this country. Luise Mühlbach’s pre-1848 novels, for example, which concerned political issues—including the position of women in German society—were not even translated in North America; but her later, post-1848 novels dealing with historical figures of Prussian and Austrian history made her not only the most popular writer of the period in Germany, but also one whose works were very familiar to readers and reviewers in America. Tatlock’s sources include book reviews, of course, but also publishers’ records and trade magazines, catalogs of library holdings and library lending records, translators’ biographies and correspondence, and even inscriptions within individual copies of the novels.

Tatlock’s study concentrates on the work of 17 German women writers whose novels in English translation became standard fare for American readers in this period: Luise Mühlbach (pen name of Clara M. Mundt), E. Werner (pen name of Elisabeth Bürstenbinder), Wilhelmine Heimburg (pen name of Bertha Behrens), Ossip Schubin (pen name of Aloisia Kirschner), E. Marlitt (pen name of Eugenie John), Wilhelmine von Hillern, Nataly von Eschstruth, Fanny Lewald, Marie Bernhard, Golo Raimund (pen name of Bertha [Heyn] Frederich), E. Hartner (pen name of Emma Eva Henriette von Twardowska), Claire von Glümer, E. Juncker (pen name of Else [Kobert] Schmieden), Ursula Zöge von Manteuffel (pen name of Frau von Trebra-Lindenau), Hedwig Schobert, Valeska von Bethusy-Huc (pen name of Valeska von Reiswitz and Kaderžin, Gräfin von Bethusy-Huc; aka Moritz von Reichenbach), and Julie Adeline (Voigt) Volckhausen. (Assembling the full list of names and pseudonyms, as I have done here, also offers a revealing look into the conditions and constraints under which 19^th-century women authors were writing.) Her appendices include statistical charts showing (1) the number of their works that were translated, (2) the number of individual translations, and (3) the number of individual editions, reprint editions, and rebindings that appeared during this period. The totals in all three groups are astonishing; surprisingly, the latter chart indicates over 550 for Luise Mühlbach alone! Many translators were involved, of whom Tatlock singles out three for presentation in individual chapters: Ann Mary Crittenden Coleman, Annis Lee Wister, and Mary Stuart Smith. According to her own statement, a total of 96 works are included in her “dataset” (20), but only about 80 of these are referred to by title, even in passing, and far fewer than this number are discussed at any length.

Tatlock’s chapters can be read as individual essays; and one can point to some redundancies and omissions. Only a Girl (Der Arzt der Seele), for example, is the work by Wilhelmine von Hillern that is discussed most extensively—in Chapter Two (46–48) and again in Chapter Five (102–111)—though in the index one finds the main entry for this title only under the name of its American translator (Wister). Most of Tatlock’s attention is given to the novels of just a few of the most popular authors: Luise Mühlbach, whose trilogy concerning Frederick the Great and two-part work concerning the Great Elector remained American...