Irretrievable
By Theodor Fontane
Afterword by Phillip Lopate
Translated by Douglas Parmée
By Theodor Fontane
Afterword by Phillip Lopate
Translated by Douglas Parmée
By Theodor Fontane
Introduction by Phillip Lopate
Translated by Douglas Parmée
By Theodor Fontane
Introduction by Phillip Lopate
Translated by Douglas Parmée
Category: Literary Fiction
Category: Literary Fiction
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$17.95
Feb 15, 2011 | ISBN 9781590173749
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May 02, 2012 | ISBN 9781590175699
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Praise
“[Irretrievable is] one of Fontane’s most idiosyncratic achievements, and certainly one of the finest literary autopsies of a foundering relationship…. The pleasure of the novel lies in its subtlety—in this case, a discreet exploration of marital psychology. Here again, trouble starts within and, like a dry rot, eats its way outward….But even after the couple ostensibly reconcile, there’s really nothing left; by the end of this mild yet anguished work, all that remains of the marriage is a lifeless residue of thwarted yearning—‘nothing but the willingness to be happy.’ As so often in the fiction of Theodor Fontane, that’s not enough to save the characters, but it’s a marvellous subject for a novel.” – Daniel Mendelsohn, The New Yorker
“A minor masterpiece of translation. . . ” —The Times Literary Supplement
“No writer of past or present stirs in me that kind of sympathy and gratitude, that immediate, instinctive delight, that reflex gaiety, warmth, and satisfaction, which I feel reading any of Fontane’s verse, any line of his letters, any scrap of dialogue.”
—Thomas Mann
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