A Man and His Dog – 3/5 I am not sure here what the actual story is. But it’s also like 70 pages, which seems pretty long for a novella, I am not sure what the actual story is, right? Specifically, we are dealing with a long description of a man getting a Pointer, which is vague, given that there are several varieties of pointers to choose from. We learn about the pointer from it’s breed specifications, from it’s character, it’s demeanor, and from the […]

“The Blood of the Walsungs” In this novella, a Prussian entrepreneur of Jewish descent (always a little dicey in German literature) starts a family and has children. His youngest children are the twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde. We meet this family as the twins are in their early adulthood near the marriage of Sieglinde and a businessman. As we move our way forward in the story we are slowly made to understand that the twins’ connection is much stronger and stranger than mere brother and sister, […]

Tonio Kroger – Tonio Kroger (short for Antonio) is a dark-haired German lad when we begin this novella. We learn soon thereafter that his father is from the far North (Norway it seems) and his mother is from Southern clime (Spain or Italy it seems). In the opening scene, school has just let out and Tonio has had a planned walk home with Hans, a close friend. We find out through Tonio’s anxiety that it looks as it Hans has maybe forgotten the appointment, or […]