"The Collected Works of Robert Walser (4 volumes)" Author: [Switzerland] Robert Walser Publisher: Guangxi Normal University Press

Introduction · · · · · ·
【Editor's recommendation】

⭐Robert Walser, the founder of modern German literature: "Berlin Trilogy" + selected story collection, four volumes in a box set

He is praised as "a walker who missed time", "a seer of subtleties", "a poet whose fate is like snow";

He is a buried genius writer who has been persistently writing books and biographies for minor figures throughout his life.

He is as famous as Musil and Kafka, has a profound influence, and is posthumously recognized as the founder of modern German literature.

Robert Walser - "Berlin Trilogy" + Selected Stories, Direct Translation from German, New Translation Published Together!

⭐ Your favorite authors love Robert Walser!

Franz Kafka, Walter Benjamin, Hermann Hesse, Stefan Zweig, Thomas Bernhard, Elias Canetti, Winfried Sebald, Martin Walser, Susan Sontag, JM Coetzee, Peter Handke… all highly recommended!

⭐Anti-internal friction declaration, ways to escape from the workstation, diary of a person who has accomplished nothing, European city walk guide

Simon Tanner, an unemployed man, said: "I can't stay in any job for long. The cramped and dirty office environment has sapped my youthful energy."

Joseph, an assistant engineer, said: "To this day, I am still alive even though I have no salary."

Jacob, a student at the servant school, said, "A zero. I am just a zero."

And author Robert Walser said: "Walking is something I have to do to keep myself alive; if I stay at home, I will just rot and wither."

⭐Designed by the famous young designer Xihe, square-ridged hardcover small format, mountain-style cool design, four-color rain flower paper with super texture

The bound book spine, with its overlapping peaks, is the natural environment surrounding the Swiss writer;

The cold and solemn cover is like the consistent tone of German literature, like making fire in the snow, with a cold face and a warm heart;

Childish red, worried gray, cotton white, sandy gray: 110*185 square ridge hardcover, elegant and compact, worry-free when going out.

The pure white envelope contains four volumes, which are convenient for collection and gift giving. "I was born as a gift, belonging to someone."

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【Celebrity/Media Recommendation】

If Walser had a hundred thousand readers, the world would be a better place.

—Hermann Hesse

It is in the work of Robert Walser that we first notice an extraordinary, indescribable sparseness. This nothingness is weight, this chaos is perseverance - these are the facts that the reader can think of when reading Walser's work.

—Walter Benjamin

Walser's works are full of tenderness, fantasy, freedom and rich moral connotations, reminiscent of those non-utilitarian and lazy years.

—Robert Musil

The moral core of Walser's writing art lies in the resistance to power and domination... Walserian virtue can only be found in the most sophisticated and elegant works of art. He is a truly outstanding and heartbreaking writer.

—Susan Sontag

How can one understand a writer who is tormented by shadows and yet shines the softest light on every page, a writer who creates humorous sketches out of the purest despair, a writer who almost always writes about the same things but never repeats himself, a writer who stands firmly on the ground but is always lost in the clouds? Walser has always been a constant companion at my side.

—Winfried Sebald

Walser's style is difficult to imitate because it hangs on an abyss that no one has yet been able to plumb... But the characters in Walser's works, relying on a certain a priori balance, smoothly walk on the edge of the abyss and almost dance on it.

—Giordio Agamben

Walser’s best qualities are in his short stories that examine watercolor shades of mood with the slightest irony, and in his essays that deal with the passage of emotion with the sensitivity of a butterfly’s wings. His own uneven but in its own way heartbreaking life is his only real subject.

——JM Coetzee

Jakob von Gunten is one of those books that changed the world of German fiction, it is unlike any other German novel, any European novel, it is unique.

——Christopher Middleton (German literature translator and research expert)

One of the greatest German-language writers of the 20th century.

--Juan José Sale

Funny and incredibly beautiful.

—John Ashbery

The Walk is an ideal starting point for reading Walser, a kind of bridge between his novels and his miniatures… The walk in the novel is a search for freedom, itself an act of freedom; whereas writing can be as abusive as one wants, or hide behind a veneer of decorum. The Walk attempts to bring writing close to life, subject to circumstances and chance encounters, and despite its obvious artificiality, the story is still extremely moving.

——The Times Literary Supplement

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【Content Introduction】

1. The Tanners

Simon, the youngest son of the Tanner family, does nothing and is idle.

He kept quitting his job, giving up one stable job after another.

Wandering aimlessly in the world.

He gained wonderful emotions during his colorful journey.

His eldest brother Klaus is worried about him, and his sister Hedwig takes him in;

The second brother, Kashpa, wandered around like him, while the third brother, Emir, was in a miserable situation.

The family scattered across the land each leads a lonely life.

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2. The Assistant

Young Joseph came to Berenswil and joined the Changgeng Star Villa.

Engineer Mr. Tobler hired him as an assistant to help him sell his inventions.

The assistant enjoyed a comfortable living condition in the villa, but had not received his salary for a long time.

A huge amount of bills came in, but the engineer refused to pay them, asking his assistant to make excuses.

The Tobler children were treated very differently, from being spoiled to being abused.

The assistant saw it all, but didn't know whether to intervene.

Is there a hidden crisis behind the glamorous life in the manor?

Where will Joseph go with a job that doesn't pay?

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3. Jakob von Gunten: A Diary

There is not much to learn here, and the teachers are scarce.

And we, the boys of Benyamenta School, were bound to achieve nothing in the end,

In other words, each of us can only play a small and humble role in the days to come.

Maybe underneath all that I am is a completely ordinary person.

But it is also possible that I have noble blood in my body. I don't know.

There is only one thing I am sure of: in the rest of my life, I will be a lovable, round zero.

I will stand up to the orders of those pretentious, uneducated and vulgar young people.

It is also possible that I will become a beggar, or simply die.

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4. A Walk: A Collection of Short Stories by Robert Walser

On Christmas Day 1956, Robert Walser died in the snow in the Alps.

First he was discovered by a hunting dog, then by nearby farmers, and then by the whole world.

The literary world finally began to pay attention to this writer who was down and out during his lifetime.

In fact, novels are only the tip of the iceberg of his creations.

It is the large number of short and medium-length works with free genres that truly established Walser's literary status:

There are dark and melancholy fairy tales for adults, and the difficult lives of little people.

There are biographical fictions about previous writers and detailed depictions of natural landscapes.

This book selects twenty-five of them, striving to fully present Walser's creative themes and style.