Felix Paul Greve's Translations, 1902-1909:
their reception in contemporary journals
A
paper presented at the LCMND Conference, Grand Forks,
October 1989
by Gaby Divay, University of Manitoba
Unlike many
of his contemporary fellow-translators, Felix Paul Greve
(1879-1948) would be entirely unknown today if it weren't
for the discovery a professor of Canadian literature chanced
upon in October1971. Searching for the uncertain origins
of the well known Canadian pioneer novelist Frederick
Philip Grove who appeared in Manitoba in 1912 and claimed
to be of Swedish descent, Douglas Spettigue convincingly
identified him with Felix Paul Greve who, staging a suicide,
disappeared from Berlin in September 1909. The three years
between his sudden eclipse from Germany and his well documented
existence as a Canadian author are shrouded in darkness,
but they are likely to have been spent in a hobo-like
existence similar to that Grove describes in the pseudo-biographical
accounts A Search of America (1927), where it
lasts for two and a half years, and In Search of Myself
(1946) where it lasts for an epically enlarged twenty
years. I don't think it is too far-fetched to see Grove's
model of autobiographical representation in Goethe's famous
Dichtung und Wahrheit where fabulation and truth,
fiction and facts are also deliberately entwined.
No
documentary proof for Grove's and Greve's identity exists
so far, but indirect evidence of a biographical and literary
nature abounds:
When
one compares Grove's depiction of his early life in the
autobiographical novels with Greve's entry in Brümmer's
Lexicon der deutschen Dichter und Prosaisten, for
which Greve supplied the information in a letter dated
March 6, 1907, it becomes obvious that the Brümmer account
reads like a blueprint for Grove's self-representation:
-
Grove adhered to the birth date February 14th, although
he changes the birth year from 1879 to 1872, which makes
him seven years older.
- to the birthplace, a nameless Russian-German border-town,
is easily identified with Greve's birthplace Radomno,
now in Poland;
- to his parents names which admittedly suffer from some
effect of Verfremdung, since Bertha Reichentrog and Carl
Eduard Greve become Bertha Rutherford and Carl Edward
Grove;
- to his schooling at a Gymnasium in Hamburg which matches
the Johanneum;
- to his higher education in classical philology in many
European capitals, but also in Bonn and Munich;
- to his proficiency in languages, with the suspicious
lack of his native Swedish;
- to his involvement with famous literary circles of Paris
and Munich around 1890 which, of course, takes place for
Greve around 1900 when he tried to be accepted in the
exclusive Stefan George Circle. Gide he doesn't meet until
1904.
Grove
makes prominent use of names with the initials FPG in
his writings, The most striking example is a confessional
novel with the tentative title Felix Powell's Career
- (Powell, spelled P_O_W_E_L_L, being a homonym of Greve's
second name P_A_U_L) - which was composed around 1940
and unfortunately is no longer extant since Grove's wife
Catherine (Stobie, p.176), felt compelled to destroy it,
presumably because of its daring and immoral content.
The
best literary evidence of Grove's and Greve's identity
are Grove's six German manuscript poems in the University
of Manitoba Archives. All of them are both in theme and
technique reminiscent of the output by the George-Circle,
and of a collection of poetry entitled Wanderungen
which Greve published privately in 1902. One of these
German Grove-poems, untitled in the Canadian manuscript,
had been published by Greve in the German literary journal
Die Schaubühne as "Erster Sturm" in 1907.
Grove's
largely unpublished English poetry can be described as
realistic, and does not share any of the decadent characteristics
which clearly dominate his German manuscript poems. An
interesting change takes place in the English translation
Grove provides for two of these. Using an almost literal
translation, he achieves a subtle and very artful shift
from neo-romantic to realistic poetry. "Erster Sturm"
becomes "The Dying Year", and the dramatic element
of Fall's arrival is toned down considerably. In "Arctic
Woods", an apocalyptic white horse symbolizing death
in the German version is replaced with the powerful evocation
of a murderous winter landscape.
A
similar shift away from the ideals of decadence towards
more realistic standards is documented for Greve in André
Gide's notes about their first personal encounter in June
1904. Greve declares that he cannot identify any longer
with the ideal of art which he still championed in his
studies on Oscar Wilde two years earlier. With reference to his financial situation he states:
"C'est le besoin qui maintenant me fait écrire. L'oeuvre
d'art n'est pour moi qu'un pis-aller. Je préfère la vie."
- "I write because of necessity now. Art
is nothing but a way out for me, I prefer life."
One
likely reason for a significant change in values and attitudes
at that time can be found in Greve's sketchy biography.
Late in 1902, he elopes with the wife of the renowned
architect August Endell whom Greve in a letter of November
19th calls his friend (Pacey, 522). When Greve returns
from Palermo in May1903, he is arrested for fraud and
sentenced to one year in prison. Two contemporary newspaper
accounts dwell on his and Else Endell's extravagant lifestyle
with borrowed money. Greve's frantic translation activities
from then on are motivated by the heavy and constant obligation
to repay enormous sums, a burden which likely decided
him five years later to disappear and start a new life
in America. The two lengthy novels Greve published in
1905 and 1907 seem to be fictional biographies based on
Else's life, and the first is considered a roman à clef
in Markus Behmer's correspondence. Behmer was a then well
known illustrator of the Insel publishers.
The
range and quantity of Greve's translations are truly amazing,
particularly for a span of only seven years: Lesage's
Gil Blas, Dumas' Count of Monte Christo,
Murger's La Bohème, a fair amount of Balzac, Flaubert
and Gide, along with Cervantes' Novellas and Don
Quichote, and possibly parts of Dante's Vita Nuova
from the Romance languages; most decadent English authors
and their precursors like Browning, De Quincey, Dowson,
Meredith, Pater, Swinburne, Whistler, and Oscar Wilde
from the English, not to mention much of H.G. Wells, the
anonymous Letters of Junius, Dicken's David
Copperfield, Swift's satirical prose works, and all
sixteen volumes of Sir Richard Burton's version of the
Arabian Nights (10 & 6 v. 1885-88; Insel,
1907-8, 12v.). Quite a few of these can still be found
in German imprint-tools today.
Already
in August1902, in his initial letter to the publishing
house Die Insel, Greve claims to have translated
"the major works of Oscar Wilde" as well as
several related English authors. Of these, he offers Dowson's
Dilemmas as the first ready for publication.
Two
years later, he tells André Gide that during his stay
in prison he has not only translated two of Gide's works,
but also "all of Flaubert's correspondence, Bouvard
et Pécuchet, all of Wells, four volumes of Meredith,
three of de Quincey". Greves claims seem boastful
and are somewhat inflated, but his subsequent publication
record justifies them to a large extent. Many, if not
all of the titles he mentions eventually appear in print,
and some may simply not have been found yet.
The
coverage of Greve's translations in contemporary literary
journals is difficult to document. For a comprehensive
survey, many more months or even years of diligent and
systematic searching would be required, and they certainly
would be rewarded with relevant findings. Unfortunately,
many journals are difficult to locate, and of the ones
found, few provide an adequate index. Some have none at
all, like the weekly Magazin für Literatur. Even
if a journal features a good index, as for instance Das
Litterarische Echo or Die Grenzboten, the search
is time consuming to say the least. Since hardly anything
except for an occasional self-review can be found under
Greve's name, each of the 23 authors Greve is known
to have translated and some others he might have
translated need to be searched.
To
complicate matters, Greve started using pseudonyms while
in prison. Only two of them, Friedrich Carl Gerden
and Konrad Thorer are known with certainty, but
Greve may well have adopted others. Spettigue suspects
the Wilde-translator Eduard Thorn to be Greve even though
it is easy to prove that Thorn obtained a doctoral degree
in 1913, and still published in the early fifties. Spettigue
and Pacey wonder if the Freiherr von Teschenberg, one
of the earliest to translate Wilde, might not also be
Greve, and both critics are inclined to see a possible
pseudonym in Felix Poppenberg who often signs surveys
about the French literary scene with his initials long
after Greve has left. While none of the above stand up
to closer scrutiny, there are other less clear-cut possibilities.
I try hard to avoid the danger of seeing Greves everywhere,
but sometimes I cannot resist the temptation either, and
I have my own little list of highly speculative Greve-pseudonyms
which - when pursued - will probably dissolve into nothingness.
So
far, I have investigated ten literary periodicals, and
I have a collection of some sixty references to either
Greve's translations themselves, or to related ones. Thirteen
authors or titles Greve is known to have translated are
covered by these somewhat unevenly.
Sometimes,
there is a sample chapter which fails to identify the
translator as Greve, as for instance Whistler's "Ten
o'clock tea" in Die Neue Rundschau of1903.
Sometimes a promising lead proves to be translated by
somebody else. If a pre-print is unsigned, additional
information stemming usually from Greve's correspondence
or a Bruns publishers catalogue, help to pinpoint Greve
as the translator.
Some
of the references I use have already been pointed out
by Spettigue or Pacey, the editor of Grove's and some
of Greve's correspondence, but many of them are my findings.
I shall now discuss the admittedly incomplete material
I have in roughly chronological order.
The
earliest evidence illustrating Greve's translations heavily
concentrate on Oscar Wilde. Of the fifteen accounts I
am aware of for the period from 1902 to 1904, ten address
this author's sudden popularity in Germany. From then
on, there are only passing remarks or reminiscences.
Max
Meyerfeld, a self-proclaimed specialist of contemporary
English literature and a Wilde-translator himself, writes
several accounts on Oscar Wilde for the leading literary
journal Das litterarische Echo. Rightfully feared
for his acerbity, he complains in late 1902 (LE V, 458
ff) about the lack of attention paid to Wilde in Germany
up to then. But now, he reports, "the German
translators have latched on to him with a vengeance. During
the last few months, almost all his works have been brought
out in German". He mentions Greve among others like
Gaulke, Pavia, and von Teschenberg.
Also,
Salome and Bunbury (The Importance of Being
Earnest) have just been successfully staged at the Kleine
Theater in Berlin, under the direction of Max Reinhardt.
Salome is Lachmann's acclaimed translation - even
Meyerfeld considers it excellent. It is still important
today because of Richard Strauss' musical adaptation.
Bunbury, or The Importance of being earnest, is
Greve's effort.
A
theatre critic in his report of the 1902 fall season for
the Neue Deutsche Rundschau also addresses the
Wilde-performances which must have been particularly impressive,
since even four years later another critic nostalgically
refers to these Reinhardt productions in Die Schaubühne.
In early 1904, the editor of the Neue Rundschau
considers the recent staging of Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung
(A Woman without Importance) "eine Scheußlichkeit",
or an abomination.
In
a letter to the George-disciple Gundolf in September 1902,
Greve signals that the Kleine Theater in Berlin would
start staging no less than four of Wilde's plays in his
translation. Evidently, only Bunbury and Eine
Frau ohne Bedeutung were produced and published either
around that time by Bruns, or later in a ten volume Wilde-edition
by the Wiener-Verlag (1906-8) along with a fairly substantial
critical study by Greve called Oscar Wilde und das
Drama (95p.).
Bruns
published, also in 1902, Greve's translation of Wilde's
Intentions as Fingerzeige (268?p.), and
in 1903 The Picture of Dorian Gray as Greve's Dorian
Gray's Bildnis. The Insel published A House of
Pomegranates as Das Granatapfelhaus. A sample
translation of each is printed in the Neue Rundschau,
where Oskar Bie also reviews Fingerzeige. He makes
no judgement on the merits of the translation, but concentrates
on the contents of the essays.
In
a self-review in Die Zukunft, Greve justifies his
translation of Dorian Gray with the poor quality
of Gaulke's. Meyerfeld, reviewing eight Wilde-titles in
the Litterarische Echo of 1903(LE VI, 1903, 541ff.)
five of which are translated by Greve, agrees with him
that Gaulke's effort (which he calls a "record in
ignorance of the English and an abuse of the German language")
had to be replaced with a better one. He compliments Greve
on the fluidity of his German style, but then severely
attacks several flaws which he cites and ridicules. Finally
he questions not only Greve's knowledge of English, but
also his ability to use a dictionary. Yet he considers
Greve not one of the worst in the scandalously poor German
translation industry.
A
year later, in early 1905 (LE VII, 985ff), Meyerfeld comments
again and for the last time on ten recent publications
by and about Wilde. This time, three of Greve's efforts
are addressed and judged inadequate except for the quality
of his German. To balance Meyerfeld's negative opinions
it may be pointed out that the famous and extremely critical
Karl Kraus in his journal Die Fackel pays Greve
a rare compliment for his "treffliche Verdeutschung",
or wonderful translation of Dorian Gray in 1904.
Meredith
is addressed in six accounts between 1903 to 1907. Next
to Wells and Flaubert, he receives most of the critical
attention. In 1900, Käthe Freiligrath reports from London,
that Meredith is just then considered quite important
in England, but has never been translated into German
(LE1). Three years later, Karl Federn devotes a sympathetic
article to Meredith and Swinburne, still without mentioning
any translations. Then in 1904, Richard Feverel
(orig. 1859) is published simultaneously by Fischer in
Julie von Sotteck's, and by Bruns in Greve's translation.
Frieda von Bülow, a close friend of Lou Andreas-Salome,
reviews both of them in the Litterarische Echo.
She acknowledges that Meredith is difficult to translate,
but demonstrates with some examples that von Sotteck's
attempt is more successful than Greve's. However, while
she judges Greve's translation to be clumsy (ungeschickt),
she grants him the advantage of a faithful and literal
approach which in last analysis she considers more important
than an elegant but sloppy adaptation.
Marie
Fuhrmann only reviews Greve's contribution in the Preussischen
Jahrbücher of 1904, and she has little flattery to
spare. Using several salient examples, she concludes that
Greve shouldn't attempt to translate at all, since his
knowledge of English and his sensitivity to German are
equally deficient. Nevertheless, Greve's translations
of Harry Richmond's Adventures (1870) appear in
print the very same year, and Diana of the Crossways
(1885) the next. No critical account has been found for
the former so far. For the latter, Marie Fuhrmann (PrJb
120) again reflects on how difficult it must have been
to translate, and how unlikely it is that either the original
text or the translation will find admirers; even Greve's
comparison with Jean Paul's style would not make any difference,
since nobody who is not forced to for professional reasons
would care to read this German author either.
A
Bruns catalogue written in the late 1920ies acknowledges
Greve's role in publishing several of Meredith's novels.
Apparently, Greve pursued one of Wilde's pointers in the
Intentions, and originally proposed to translate
Beauchamp's Career (1875; KLL, Bs Laufbahn, when?)
which was however rejected. Note the parallel with the
title of Grove's aborted autobiographical work Felix
Powell's Career!
The
only two references to Browning consist of a short sample
of Kleon in Die Freistatt, and a lengthy
preprint in two parts of Browning's & Barrett's letters
in Die Neue Deutsche Rundschau, both in 1904.
No
translator is listed for either of these, but the letters
were published the next year by S. Fischer in Greve's
translation. The Gerden pseudonym was used here,
as it was for three other Browning translations all published
by the Insel: Paracelsus, On a Balcony &
In a Gondola, and A Blot in the Scutcheon.
In a note to the Insel publishers dated May 12th, 1903,
Greve announces proudly that "parts of (the letters)
will appear shortly in the NDR", which, as we have
seen, they were. Pacey admits in an annotation to his
1976 edition of Grove's and Greve's correspondence that
he has not been able to find these letters (p.526); they
must have been hard to miss since there are 60 p. of them!.
Browning
appears to receive a minimal amount of attention from
the German critics, in spite of Greve's efforts to propagate
him with text samples. Compared to Wilde, Meredith, and
Wells there are also notably few rival translations.
After
1905, the Wilde-wave seems to have subsided. Gide and
Wells emerge now, but also the first volumes of the large
Flaubert and Balzac editions and of the
Arabian nights are covered somewhat unevenly by
the 22 references gathered for the years 1905-1908. All
of these translations continue to be addressed during
the next two years. Around 1908, Pater's Marius finally
appears in print, and then the Cervantes and Swift editions
are reflected in some accounts.
The
critical reception of Gide in Germany is minor and disappointing
in comparison to Wilde's and Wells'. There are also relatively
few translators rivaling with Greve for Gide's works,
but some of them, like Franz Blei and Rainer Maria Rilke,
are of major importance.
Gide's
Immoraliste (1902) and Paludes (1895) as
Die Sümpfe were translated 1903 in prison, and
published by Bruns in 1905.
Only
two reviews of Der Immoralist and none of Paludes
have been found. Marie Fuhrmann in the Preußische Jahrbücher
objects to the flood of translations on the German market
generally, and particularly when the imports are of questionable
aesthetic and moral value. That Gide was a friend of Wilde,
that he is compared to Nietzsche on Greve's advertisement
blurb is hardly a recommendation for the reviewer, in
whose opinion L'immoraliste never should have seen
the day of light, and especially not in German. Julie
Speyer' review in the Neue Rundschau (17, 1906,
637ff.) is more sympathetic; the critic concentrates on
work-immanent aspects, and has no remarks on Greve's translation.
Gide's
Nourritures terrestre (1897) Greve declares ready
for publication in a letter to Franz Blei in 1905. But
none of the German translations with titles like Uns
nährt die Erde or Früchte der Erde - the latter
ironically or significantly coinciding with the title
Grove chose for his novel, Fruits of the Earth
in 1933 - can be identified as Greve's. Greve continued
translating works Gide's works until he left. One of his
last extant letters in June 1908 is addressed to Gide.
Greve informs him that Saul (orig.1903) will be
in print shortly, and he expects a stage-production during
the winter season of 1908. There is also an enigmatic
statement which indicates that Greve already has plans
to exit from his present existence: "Ça court sa
routine. Mais
il y aura une grande lacune dans quelques mois" -
"Things go on in their usual way. But
there will be a great gap in a few months."
A
pre-print of Saul with a short critical introduction
by Greve appears in Die Schaubühne of 1907, while
the Reiss publishers' imprint is dated 1909. The same
year Greve's translation of La porte étroite (orig.
in NRF) appeared as Die enge Pforte (Reiss), only
half a year after the original was serially published
in La Nouvelle Revue Française (2.-4. 1909). It
was one of Greve's last German ventures. It even seems
that the translation was incomplete, since a review by
Moritz Heimann in Die Neue Rundschau (20,1909,
1370ff.) notes that the final chapter of the original
is lacking in the German version. The qualities of Greve's
translation are not addressed, but the novel is considered
"artless", and the author is accused of "modern
skepticism".
No
less than six of Greve's Wells-translations were published
in 1904 and 1905 by Bruns. Many of them are authorized
by Wells, and the Wells Collection at the University of
Illinois in Urbana-Champaign owns autographed presentation
copies of almost all these translations. There must have
been some correspondence between Wells and Greve, but
it appears not to have been retrieved, since no account
of it has been made public so far.
Wells
(1866-1946) is also of particular interest because many
of his social and technological concerns are similar to
those Grove reflects upon in his Canadian years.
Apart
from a self-review of the Anticipations in Die
Zukunft of 1905 where Greve compares Wells' stories
to Jules Verne's science-fiction and Swift satires, and
an unsigned short story in the same journal in 1906, there
is a summary of an article about Wells the in Literarische
Echo in1907 .It points to an account in Die neue
Gesellschaft (H.17,Bd.5), a journal I have not had
opportunity to see yet. Jules Verne and Swift are mentioned
again, and while no discussion of the translations is
indicated, many of Greve's titles are used in the summary.
In
1909, there is another short story by Wells in Der
Morgen, and this time Greve signs as the translator.
In the same year, there are also three reviews of The
War in the Air which was originally published in 1908,
and then in Germany both in English, by Tauchnitz in Leipzig,
and in German by J. Hoffmann in Stuttgart. Neither Greve
nor anybody else is mentioned as translator, but Greve's
review of Der Luftkrieg sounds suspiciously like
a sales-pitch when he concludes that "the book simply
lacks 50.000 readers".
Bodo
Wildberg in the Literarische Echo criticizes the
novel's dark outlook on the consequences of technological
discoveries, and notes that the German version seems mercifully
shortened. An anonymous reviewer in Die Grenzboten
calls Wells an accomplished writer with a powerful imagination
and fascinating plots. Another anonymous article of considerable
length (13p.) in the same journal deals with Wells in
general. The author is less appreciative in his description
of Wells' socialist leanings, and his political and social
reform proposals. He reproaches Wells for the naturalistic
breadth of his writings, and concludes that Wells' fame
will dissipate as quickly as it has materialized.
The
earliest indications that Greve turns to more traditional
literatures are in a letter (14.6.'03) to the Insel publishers
from his prison residence in 1903. He states that he feels
a great desire to translate Flaubert's Contes,
adds in as an afterthought: "Sollte man nicht einmal
Balzac übersetzen?" (Wouldn't it be indicated to
translate Balzac?). Both authors, according to a note
in the Litterarische Echo (LE10,'08, 1547),
were little known in Germany at that time. The massive
editions of Flaubert, by Fischer, and of Balzac by the
Insel began in 1907 and 1908 respectively, and Greve's
involvement in them is considerable. His Flaubert translations
all had previously appeared with Bruns' imprint, some
of them as early as 1904. On Balzac's Splendeurs et
misère des courtisanes and various novelettes he seems
to be working mainly around 1908.
Marie
Fuhrmann is quick to object, in 1905, that Greve's version
of Flaubert's La tentation de Saint Antoine was
totally unnecessary on the grounds that no new translation
was required and that nobody would read it anyway (PrJB).
The Letters are mentioned in 1906 by one Hans Kyser,
and in 1907 Oskar Bie reports approvingly in the Neue
Rundschau that already two anthologies of these are
available in German, one of them in Greve's translation.
In 1908, Richard Schaukal in the Literarische Echo
considers the flood of Flaubert's letters and Balzac novels
tasteless, and holds greedy publishers responsible for
this overproduction.
Further
outspoken criticism about these editions soon abounds,
and rather uncharitable comments about the quality of
the translations include and even concentrate on Greve's
contributions. The Viennese critics Franz Servaes and
Rene Schickele, both in the Literarische Echo of
1909, quibble about titles and word choices, and refer
condescendingly to Greve's immense output, implying that
someone that fast cannot possibly be good. Harry Kahn,
in the same volume (LE XI, 1330ff), calls Greve even "a
notorious Speed- and Mass-translator" (there is a
connotation with mass-murderer!) who deforms great French
writers and particularly Balzac with his sloppy German
translations. He suggests that one should add up the pages
of Greve's output in a given year, and divide them by
the the number of days; this arithmetic exercise would
result in some amazing statistics. The title of Kahn's
rather polemic contribution is "Gefährliche Übersetzer",
or Dangerous translators.
Greve's translation
of the Arabian Nights from Burton's English edition
in sixteen volumes for the Insel publishers and adorned
with an introduction by Hugo von Hofmannsthal meets with
more critical success. The first volumes appear in 1907,
and receive immediate attention. Leo Berg in the Literarische
Echo, W. Fred in the Neue Rundschau and someone
with the initials J.R.H. in the Grenzboten all
welcome the effort, and perhaps because they are preoccupied
with the complicated publication history of the text,
they find kind words for the editor and translator.
Also
August Krause in early 1910 considers the translation
excellent. Adjacent to Krause's review, R. Neumann reflects
on the first two volumes of a collection of Oriental tales
entitled Thousand and one Days. Those were published
by the Insel in 1909, edited by Paul Ernst, and translated
by Greve. Volumes three and four appeared later in 1910
in Hausmann's translation. Neumann makes positive remarks
on the simple and elegant binding, but has rather harsh
criticisms of Greve's translation. Greve had already left
at the time, but Paul Ernst find it necessary to defend
him in the next issue of the Literarische Echo
where he in turn savagely attacks the reviewer's style.
The
substantial Cervantes translations are published by the
Insel in 1907 and 1908, and the Konrad Thorer pseudonym
is used. Wolfgang von Wurzbach reviews the Novellas,
and congratulates the publishers on the courage to undertake
a new edition, but he reproaches "the new translator"
of plagiarizing an older version without acknowledgement.
Thassilo von Scheffer comments on the attractive appearance
of the two Don Quichote volumes, and underlines
the importance of an unshortened edition.
Swifts
prose works in four volumes started to be published by
Oesterheld in early 1909. Greve is acknowledged as editor,
translator and commentator. Gustav Landauer reviews the
first volume in the Literarische Echo, and finds
the translation pleasant to read.
In
1908, Walter Pater's Marius the Epikurean, which
according to Greve's correspondence with the Insel was
already completed in early 1903 when he returned from
his escapade in Palermo, is finally published and extracts
half a compliment for the courageous translator from Max
Meyerfeld in a review in the Literarische Echo.
In his opinion, however, that Greve has aa tendency to
translate too literally.
A
very thorough analysis of the text is provided by Carl
Jentsch in the Grenzboten. He concentrates entirely
on the philosophical content, but at one point he commends
the translator for his elegant solution of a very difficult
task. He fully agrees with a favorable review in the scholarly
journal Anglia (which I have not seen), and defends
Greve against some accusations voiced elsewhere, possibly
in Meyerfelds review, to have produced a "slavish
copy" of Pater's work.
For
the translation of Lesage's Gil Blas in 1908, for
which Greve used the Thorer-pseudonym, no critical account
has been found so far. Also Murger's La Bohème
is only flagged in one of Greve's self-reviews in die
Zukunft of 1907. The lack of visibility for Dickens'
David Copperfield and De Quincey's Murder considered
as one of the fine arts (1827) can be explained easily
enough with their, so to speak, posthumous publication
in 1911 and 1913 respectively. More amazing is that Dowson's
Dilemmas and Browning's Paracelsus are not
covered. They were published as early as 1903 and 1904,
and Greve states in a letter to the Insel publishers already
in October 1903 that he has arranged for review "in
a few places, the Magazin, etc." Apparently,
this journal and Greve's advertisement politics caused
the publisher considerable displeasure, and it is therefore
possible that those reviews were aborted. But then it
is just as possible that they, as many others, are still
waiting to be discovered.
In
conclusion, it is obvious that Greve in collaboration
with the Bruns and Insel publishers must be credited with
introducing the works of Browning, Dowson, Meredith, Pater,
and Wells to the German public in a timely manner. He
has been equally instrumental in making Gide, Flaubert
and Balzac available , and in kindling the interest in
many older works, particularly the Arabian Nights, Cervantes,
Lesage and Swift. And it is also likely that Grove's impressive
literary knowledge has its foundation in Greve's translation
experience.
When
Grove feels compelled in 1926 to disclaim an allegation
in the Canadian Bookman that he published the
first continental edition of Gullivers Travels,
he must have worried about being identified with Greve,
since the first volume of the Prosaschriften is
entitled Gullivers Reisen. But occasionally Grove
seems inclined to give pointers to his previous existence,
for instance when he says in "A writer's classification
of writers and their work" (UTQ 1, 1932):
"There are writers who are in love with art and yet
are not...artists. Let me mention Lesage, or Walter Pater,
or Gustave Flaubert. In their productions, these are inevitably
stylists. They scrupulously avoid the trite...;they will
never fall to the level of the mediocre; but neither will
they attain the heights." Who could know better about
these authors than Greve?
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