The Tin Drum [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Gunter Grass (Author), Breon Mitchell (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 2009

The Tin Drum, one of the great novels of the twentieth century, was published in Ralph Manheim's outstanding translation in 1959. It became a runaway bestseller and catapulted its young author to the forefront of world literature.

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the original publication, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, along with Grass’s publishers all over the world, is bringing out a new translation of this classic novel. Breon Mitchell, acclaimed translator and scholar, has drawn from many sources: from a wealth of detailed scholarship; from a wide range of newly-available reference works; and from the author himself. The result is a translation that is more faithful to Grass’s style and rhythm, restores omissions, and reflects more fully the complexity of the original work.

After fifty years, THE TIN DRUM has, if anything, gained in power and relevance. All of Grass’s amazing evocations are still there, and still amazing: Oskar Matzerath, the indomitable drummer; his grandmother, Anna Koljaiczek; his mother, Agnes; Alfred Matzerath and Jan Bronski, his presumptive fathers; Oskar’s midget friends—Bebra, the great circus master and Roswitha Raguna, the famous somnambulist; Sister Scholastica and Sister Agatha, the Right Reverend Father Wiehnke; the Greffs, the Schefflers, Herr Fajngold, all Kashubians, Poles, Germans, and Jews—waiting to be discovered and re-discovered.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Tin Drum itself remains a very great novel, as daring and imaginative as Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude or Toni Morrison's Beloved." (Washington Post )

About the Author

G�NTER GRASS was born in Danzig, Germany, in 1927. He is the widely acclaimed author of numerous books, including The Tin Drum, My Century, Crabwalk, and Peeling the Onion. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999.

 

Breon Mitchell is Professor of Germanic Studies and Comparative Literature at Indiana University, where he is also Director of the Lilly Library. A Rhodes Scholar, he received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Oxford University. His areas of specialization include literary translation, Anglo-German literary relations, literature and the visual arts, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, and Samuel Beckett.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Printing of This New Edition edition (October 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151014167
• ISBN-13: 978-0151014163
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #690,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Danzig, Germany, in 1927, Günter Grass is a widely acclaimed author of plays, essays, poems, and numerous novels. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brave New Translation, November 27, 2009

By 

Richard J. Rundell (Las Cruces, NM) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Tin Drum (Hardcover)

Following the generally accepted premise that great novels deserve to be re-translated every generation or so, Breon Mitchell has tackled the most important postwar German novel, and one which had already been translated by Ralph Manheim brilliantly into English not long after it appeared in German in 1959.

But now a half-century has passed, and Mitchell's skills are awesome, indeed. He has leapt courageously into the deep end of Guenter Grass' linguistic inventiveness, some of which looks at first as if it will defy translation at all. But Mitchell has succeeded beyond any bilingual reader's expectations. THE TIN DRUM is still far richer in its original German, but Mitchell has rendered its wealth anew, and those readers who have yet to discover this masterpiece in English will be rewarded.

Dr. Richard J. Rundell
Professor of German
New Mexico State University

33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Different Book, October 24, 2009

By 

William Alexander "Alexander, Shaun" (Spartanburg, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tin Drum (Hardcover)

In this review, I have little to say. Grass' masterpiece "The Tin Drum" is legendary not only for its haunting story, but the vast amount of scholarly interpretation and analysis. I will not attempt to tackle any of that here.

What I can say is this. I have an older translation of "The Tin Drum" which I thought very good. And it is very good. But, in reading portions of this new translation, I get the odd feeling that I am reading a vaguely different and more layered story. This is not to denigrate the older edition I have, but this new translation is obviously much better. As I read, I am simply getting "more" out of the book than what I remember from the first time I read it, and I really don't think it is a function of my own personal experiences or age allowing some greater understanding, but a richer, more faithful translation. It's nothing I can put my finger on with precision, but it's there. This edition is simply a better version of a classic masterpiece.

The binding is solid and I am having no difficulty with any printer's errors or shoddy construction values.

Enthusiastic recommendation without reservation.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great novels of the 20th century, November 13, 2010

By 

TChris (Tzer Island) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Tin Drum (Paperback)

The Tin Drum is one of my favorite novels and, I think, one of the great novels of the 20th Century. It is profound and mysterious, funny and disturbing, innovative and original. Grass created the epitome of the unreliable narrator, yet the story he tells reveals fundamental truths about human nature: about love and betrayal, ecstasy and fear. Moreover, the story is so intense, so moving, in a sense so miraculous, the reader wants to believe it, even knowing that it comes from a delusional man who describes physically impossible events. Oskar is one of the grand creations of modern literature: a mentally disturbed man whose story can't be trusted, but who clearly suffered through tragic events that would drive anyone mad, and who arrived at a more insightful understanding of life than most "sane" people will ever know. If ever a novel deserved 5 stars, this one does.