most beautiful novel opening

Ian (Hank Kimble) Scuffling scuffling at gmail.com
Fri Nov 9 08:36:43 CST 2007


I haven't read it (I'm familiar with the folk tale), but wasn't "The
Flounder" translated into English years ago?

On Nov 9, 2007 7:38 AM, Otto <ottosell at googlemail.com> wrote:

> The opening sentence of  Günter Grass' novel "Der Butt" (1977) has
> been awarded with the title: "most beautiful opening sentence in a
> German novel".
>
> The sentence is:
>
> "Ilsebill salzte nach"
>
> If I'm not wrong the novel hasn't been translated into English yet. It
> is not listed here:
> http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1999/bio-bibl.html
>
> The novel is a postmodern version of the Grimm-tale "The Fisherman and
> His Wife":
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fisherman_and_His_Wife
>
>    Manntje, Manntje, Timpe Te,
>    Buttje, Buttje in der See,
>    myne Fru de Ilsebill
>    will nich so, as ik wol will:
>
> Second is Kafka's opening of "The Metamorphosis" and third Siegfried
> Lenz's story "Der Leseteufel", the first story of his early
> short-story collection "So zärtlich war Suleyken" (1955):
>
> "Hamilkar Schaß, mein Großvater, ein Herrchen von, sagen wir mal,
> einundsiebzig Jahren, hatte sich gerade das Lesen beigebracht, als die
> Sache losging."
>
>


-- 
AsB4,

Henry Mu
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