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Available
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Publication
[Amsterdam] Lebowski 2015
User reviews
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
Der Spaziergang is a dark, sombre piece of prose. It was written at a time when Robert Walser felt himself cut off from the cultural scene in Berlin, where in the decade before he had written his great novels.
Between 1913–1921, Robert Walser lived in Switzerland. The transition from Berlin to the
A walk is a type of activity that leads to encounters with people, but of a fleeting nature. In Der Spaziergang the "I" leaves his home spurred by the desire to go for a walk. The author's mood is described as romantic and adventurous as he gets away from his writing room "dem Schreib- oder Geisterzimmer" in which he had been brooding over a blank sheet of paper filled with "Trauer, Schmerz und alle schweren gedanken", --mourning, pain and heavy thoughts. Nonetheless, the author knows that despite the elevating effect of the walk, he remains serious, and appearing to be happy, he will try to keep his true feelings hidden from other people.
The first part of the walk goes through his familiar neighbourhood, in which he greets and knows the people, however, further down the road, familiarity disappears, and the author is described as standing out in his bright yellow suit. In this "hellgelben (...) Engländer-Anzug" he thinks he look like an English Lord, a Grandseigneur or a Marquis trotting around in a park, whereas in fact he is walking on a rural road through an impoverished suburb.
In his yellow suit, Walser reminds us a little of Goethe's Werther, and in his romantic mood he revels in the sight of the countryside, despite the fact that in reality the suburb is polluted and crowded with factories.
No longer in familiar territory, moving as a stranger among strangers, Walser's throughts and ruminations become increasingly laden with imagery and language of war, and his ideas about people swing from friendly to suspicion and agression. In his dealings with a tailor, he muses that he should be prepared for a dangerous offensive war:
{Ich} rüstete mich für diesen höchst gefährlichen Angriffskrieg mit Eigenschaften, wie Mut, Trotz, Zorn, Entrüstung, Verachtung oder gar Todesverachtung aus, mit welchen ohne Zweifel sehr schätzenswerten Waffen ich der beißenden Ironie und dem Spott hinter erheuchelter Treuherzigkeit erfolgreich und siegreich entgegentreten zu können hoffte. (p. 44)
While Walser goes for a walk to set his mind free, depressing thoughts about war are never far off, and even in his most optimistic mood he still sees himself as a soldier at the front , "dem wackeren, dienstbereiten und aufopferungsfreudigen erprobten Feldsoldaten." The walker cannot escape his dark thoughts, so that sometimes, unexpectedly Heaven and Earth clash together, breaking up all order into chaos, and the author asks himself: "Where am I?"
Erde und Himmel fließen und stürzen mit einmal in ein blitzendes, schimmerndes, übereinanderwogendes, undeutliches Nebelgebilde zusammen; das Chaos beginnt, und die Ordnungen verschwinden. Der Kopf will ihm abfallen, und die sonst so lebendigen Arme und Beine sind ihm wie erstarrt. Land und Leute, Töne und Farben, Gesichter und Gestalten, Wolken und Sonnenschein drehen sich wie Schemen rund um ihn herum, und er muß sich fragen: »Wo bin ich?«. (p.58).
In his mind, the walk through the peaceful countryside becomes an ordeal, and each interaction with people is rewritten in terms of war. Gradually, the war also invades the walkers' reality. Waiting to cross a railroad track, a train passes full of soldiers and he observes a group of children with wooden rifles playing war.
Getting up to go home, Walser wonders why he picked a bunch of flowers. Was it to place them upon his unhappiness, he asks himself, as it drops from his hand.
Der Spaziergang was published in 1917. Between 1914 and 1917 Robert Walser had served in the army several times, enough to be haunted by the spectre of the Great War.
Between 1913–1921, Robert Walser lived in Switzerland. The transition from Berlin to the
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quiet and rural Swiss countryside and smaller towns marks a change in the work of Walser. Since 1913, his work consists mainly of short prose compositions. However, Walser found descriptions of nature of less interest, and preferred to write about people. It was also at this time that Walser started making long walks in the countryside, sometimes by night.A walk is a type of activity that leads to encounters with people, but of a fleeting nature. In Der Spaziergang the "I" leaves his home spurred by the desire to go for a walk. The author's mood is described as romantic and adventurous as he gets away from his writing room "dem Schreib- oder Geisterzimmer" in which he had been brooding over a blank sheet of paper filled with "Trauer, Schmerz und alle schweren gedanken", --mourning, pain and heavy thoughts. Nonetheless, the author knows that despite the elevating effect of the walk, he remains serious, and appearing to be happy, he will try to keep his true feelings hidden from other people.
The first part of the walk goes through his familiar neighbourhood, in which he greets and knows the people, however, further down the road, familiarity disappears, and the author is described as standing out in his bright yellow suit. In this "hellgelben (...) Engländer-Anzug" he thinks he look like an English Lord, a Grandseigneur or a Marquis trotting around in a park, whereas in fact he is walking on a rural road through an impoverished suburb.
In his yellow suit, Walser reminds us a little of Goethe's Werther, and in his romantic mood he revels in the sight of the countryside, despite the fact that in reality the suburb is polluted and crowded with factories.
No longer in familiar territory, moving as a stranger among strangers, Walser's throughts and ruminations become increasingly laden with imagery and language of war, and his ideas about people swing from friendly to suspicion and agression. In his dealings with a tailor, he muses that he should be prepared for a dangerous offensive war:
{Ich} rüstete mich für diesen höchst gefährlichen Angriffskrieg mit Eigenschaften, wie Mut, Trotz, Zorn, Entrüstung, Verachtung oder gar Todesverachtung aus, mit welchen ohne Zweifel sehr schätzenswerten Waffen ich der beißenden Ironie und dem Spott hinter erheuchelter Treuherzigkeit erfolgreich und siegreich entgegentreten zu können hoffte. (p. 44)
While Walser goes for a walk to set his mind free, depressing thoughts about war are never far off, and even in his most optimistic mood he still sees himself as a soldier at the front , "dem wackeren, dienstbereiten und aufopferungsfreudigen erprobten Feldsoldaten." The walker cannot escape his dark thoughts, so that sometimes, unexpectedly Heaven and Earth clash together, breaking up all order into chaos, and the author asks himself: "Where am I?"
Erde und Himmel fließen und stürzen mit einmal in ein blitzendes, schimmerndes, übereinanderwogendes, undeutliches Nebelgebilde zusammen; das Chaos beginnt, und die Ordnungen verschwinden. Der Kopf will ihm abfallen, und die sonst so lebendigen Arme und Beine sind ihm wie erstarrt. Land und Leute, Töne und Farben, Gesichter und Gestalten, Wolken und Sonnenschein drehen sich wie Schemen rund um ihn herum, und er muß sich fragen: »Wo bin ich?«. (p.58).
In his mind, the walk through the peaceful countryside becomes an ordeal, and each interaction with people is rewritten in terms of war. Gradually, the war also invades the walkers' reality. Waiting to cross a railroad track, a train passes full of soldiers and he observes a group of children with wooden rifles playing war.
Getting up to go home, Walser wonders why he picked a bunch of flowers. Was it to place them upon his unhappiness, he asks himself, as it drops from his hand.
Der Spaziergang was published in 1917. Between 1914 and 1917 Robert Walser had served in the army several times, enough to be haunted by the spectre of the Great War.
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LibraryThing member IonaS
I was looking forward to reading this book but was somewhat disappointed by the writer’s wordy style.
The writer describes a walk he takes and all that he sees and does in the course of it, e.g. catches sight of a beautiful woman whom he bountifully praises, meets a girl who sings wondrously and
Then he goes to dinner with a Frau Aebi who tells him he must eat until he falls unconscious, and she seems to mean it, so that was unfortunate.
He also had to visit the Post Office and the tailor’s, and then pay his taxes.
He imparts to us the contents of a letter he has just posted, in which he attacks the recipient in no uncertain terms, and is inordinately critical of the tailor who makes a suit for him.
His declaration to the taxman finally lets me realize that the book is a parody (I’m a bit slow in certain respects).
He explains that he earns a very dubious income and that the taxman will find not the tiniest trace of an amassed fortune. He is “extremely free from wealth” but “laden with every sort of poverty”. He asks the taxman to write all this in his notebook.
He cannot permit himself to be seen on the streets on Sundays since he has no Sunday clothes.
He has written several books, “which unfortunately were quite poorly received by the reading public”.
The taxman replies, irrelevantly, that the author is often to be seen out for a walk, to which Walser retorts that without walking he would be dead and would not be able to collect either observations or studies and would thus not be able to produce an essay, let alone a story.
I appreciated the humorous content of the story, while having difficulty with the author’s unwarranted verbose style, that gives the impression that his main object is to show off his prolific vocabulary. But the more I read, the more I liked the book.
We’re told in the introduction that the goal of the author’s various errands is distraction from something he is desperately trying to banish from his thoughts, but I must have missed this.
Though I do see that the end of the story was extremely negative. Perhaps the author was unhappy in love, or had not said what he should have to his lady love.
The writer describes a walk he takes and all that he sees and does in the course of it, e.g. catches sight of a beautiful woman whom he bountifully praises, meets a girl who sings wondrously and
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compliments her excessively to an embarrassing extent. Then he goes to dinner with a Frau Aebi who tells him he must eat until he falls unconscious, and she seems to mean it, so that was unfortunate.
He also had to visit the Post Office and the tailor’s, and then pay his taxes.
He imparts to us the contents of a letter he has just posted, in which he attacks the recipient in no uncertain terms, and is inordinately critical of the tailor who makes a suit for him.
His declaration to the taxman finally lets me realize that the book is a parody (I’m a bit slow in certain respects).
He explains that he earns a very dubious income and that the taxman will find not the tiniest trace of an amassed fortune. He is “extremely free from wealth” but “laden with every sort of poverty”. He asks the taxman to write all this in his notebook.
He cannot permit himself to be seen on the streets on Sundays since he has no Sunday clothes.
He has written several books, “which unfortunately were quite poorly received by the reading public”.
The taxman replies, irrelevantly, that the author is often to be seen out for a walk, to which Walser retorts that without walking he would be dead and would not be able to collect either observations or studies and would thus not be able to produce an essay, let alone a story.
I appreciated the humorous content of the story, while having difficulty with the author’s unwarranted verbose style, that gives the impression that his main object is to show off his prolific vocabulary. But the more I read, the more I liked the book.
We’re told in the introduction that the goal of the author’s various errands is distraction from something he is desperately trying to banish from his thoughts, but I must have missed this.
Though I do see that the end of the story was extremely negative. Perhaps the author was unhappy in love, or had not said what he should have to his lady love.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
German
Original publication date
1917
Physical description
111 p.; 23 cm
ISBN
9789048826384
Other editions
The walk and other stories by Robert Walser (Paperback)