| Record Number |
790176 |
| ISBN |
9781782274452 (paperback) |
| Author |
Plenzdorf, Ulrich, 1934-2007 author. |
| Title |
The new sorrows of young W. / Ulrich Plenzdorf ; translated from the German by Romy Fursland. |
| Publisher/Date |
London : Pushkin Press, 2018. |
| ©2015 |
| Pagination etc. |
139 pages ; 20 cm |
| Contents note |
"The New Sorrows of Young W. was first published in Germany as Die Leiden des jungen W. by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main"--Title page verso. |
| Summary Note |
'I was just a regular idiot, a nutcase, a show-off and all that. Nothing to cry about. Seriously.' Edgar W., teenage dropout, unrequited lover, unrecognized genius--and dead--tells the story of his brief, spectacular life. It is the story of how he rebels against the petty rules of communist East Germany to live in an abandoned summer house, with just a tape recorder and a battered copy of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther for company. Of his passionate love for the dark-eyed, unattainable kindergarten teacher Charlie. And of how, in a series of calamitous events (involving electricity and a spray paint machine), he meets his untimely end. Absurd, funny and touching, this cult German bestseller, now in a new translation, is both a satire on life in the GDR and a hymn to youthful freedom. |
| Language note |
Translated from the German. |
| Subject |
Mental illness -- Fiction |
| Teenage boys -- Fiction |
| German fiction -- Translations into English |
| Germany (East) -- Social conditions -- 20th century -- Fiction |
| Satirical literature. |
| Added Author |
Fursland, Romy translator. |
| Shelf Location |
F PLEN |
