Author | Hermann Sudermann |
---|---|
Original title | Litauische Geschichten |
Translator | Lewis Galantière |
Country | Germany |
Language | German |
Publisher | J.G. Cotta |
Publication date | 1917 |
Published in English | 1930 |
Pages | 488 |
The Excursion to Tilsit is a 1917 collection of short stories or novellas by the German writer Hermann Sudermann. Its German title is Litauische Geschichten, which means "Lithuanian stories". The book consists of four stories set in rural Lithuania in the mid 19th century. It was published in English in 1930, translated by Lewis Galantière. [1]
Several stories from the book have been adapted for film. Most famously, F. W. Murnau's 1927 film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is loosely based on the titular story. [2]
The Excursion to Tilsit (Die Reise nach Tilsit)
A married man is in love with his mistress and plans to drown his wife on the way back from a trip to Tilsit. During the trip he reconciles with his wife, changes his mind and tells her about his now abandoned plan. In a fatal accident the man drowns and the wife is saved through the means the man had prepared for his own escape.
Miks Bumbullis
A murderer needs to visit the grave of his daughter to please the goddess of death, despite knowing that the police will be there waiting for him.
Jons and Erdma (Jons und Erdme)
A couple become wealthy by the means of tricks and foul play. Eventually they are in turn tricked by their daughters and have to start again from zero.
The Hired Girl (Die Magd)
Margaret Wallace of The Bookman wrote:
Like Selma Lagerlöf, and many other novelists whose material is national and even provincial, Sudermann by his very unconcern with cosmopolitan values gives a deeper truth and meaning to the lives of his characters. Of these four stories of Lithuanian peasants, only one, "Miks Bumbullis", depends for its effect upon purely national traits and circumstances. They are, for the most part, founded solidly upon the fundamental and inescapable human facts of birth and love and death. They are moving and tragic and, above all, intensely and vividly alive. [3]
The Outlook reviewed the book:
Excursion to Tilsit by Hermann Sudermann is a collection of powerful short stories dealing with the life of Lithuanian peasants. The author has observed them sympathetically and at first hand. Nominal Catholics, they still live in fear of pagan gods, giving even their lives to propitiate them. ... Among the stories, that of Jons and Erdma who, having built a home by tricks and cunning are tricked out of it at last by their daughters, compares favorably with Turgeniev's Lear of the Steppes as a story of faith and treachery. [4]
The Last Laugh is a 1924 German silent film directed by German director F. W. Murnau from a screenplay written by Carl Mayer. The film stars Emil Jannings and Maly Delschaft.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is a 1927 American synchronized sound romantic drama directed by German director F. W. Murnau and starring George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Movietone sound-on-film process. The story was adapted by Carl Mayer from the short story "The Excursion to Tilsit", from the 1917 collection with the same title by Hermann Sudermann.
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau was a German film director, producer and screenwriter. He is regarded as one of cinema's most influential filmmakers for his work in the silent era.
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Hermann Sudermann was a German dramatist and novelist.
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Tartuffe is a German silent film produced by Erich Pommer for UFA and released in 1926. It was directed by F. W. Murnau, photographed by Karl Freund and written by Carl Mayer from Molière's original play. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin. Set design and costumes were by Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig.
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Jons und Erdme is a 1959 West German drama film directed by Victor Vicas, starring Giulietta Masina and Carl Raddatz. It is based on the story "Jons and Erdma" from Hermann Sudermann's 1917 short story collection The Excursion to Tilsit.