Translations by Mike Mitchell

One of the major strengths [of Ariadne Press] has been its ability to attract first-rate scholars and translators … One outstanding example of this talent is Michael Mitchell …” — Francis Michael Sharp, Austria Kultur

Contents

German classics

Theodor Fontane

Effi Briest with an introduction and notes by Ritchie Robertson, 2015, Oxford University Press, World Classics ISBN 978-0-19-967564-7

… the translation by Mike Mitchell is excellent — I never had the sense that I was even reading a translation, which is high praise from someone as fussy as I am. So — highly recommended.” — Harriet, Shinynewbooks, Reprints Issue 5

Karl Emil Franzos

Leib Weihnachtskuchen and his Child 2005, (UK) Ascog Press ISBN 0-9545989-0-3 / (US) Ariadne ISBN 1-57241-137-6

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The German Refugees 2006, Dedalus ISBN 1-903517-44-3

Grimmelshausen

The Adventures of Simplicissimus(1669) Dedalus, 1999 ISBN  1-873982-78-X

The Life of Courage (1670) Dedalus, 2001 ISBN 1-873982-56-9

Tearaway(1670) Dedalus, 2003 ISBN 1-903517-18-4

The Continuation of Simplicissimus(1669) Dedalus, 2019 ISBN 978-1-910213-92-6; (ebook) 978-1-912868-15-5

Franz Kafka

The Trial with introduction and notes by Ritchie Robertson, OUP, Oxford World's Classics, 2009 ISBN 9780199238293

Oskar Kokoschka

Stories from my life (1956/1974), Ariadne, 1998 (with E. Wilkins, E. Kaiser) ISBN 1-57241-062-0

Plays and Poems, Ariadne, 2000 ISBN 1-57241-041-8

Alfred Kubin The Other Side (1909) Dedalus, 2000 ISBN 1-873982-69-0

… this superb new translation …” — Keiron Pinn, Time Out

Paul Leppin

The Road to Darkness Dedalus, 1997 ISBN 1-873982-33-X containing
two novels, Daniel Jesus (1905) and Severin's Road to Darkness (1914) and
a short story, The Ghost of the Jewish Ghetto (1914-1915).

Gustav Meyrink

The Angel of the West Window (1927), Dedalus, 1991 ISBN (UK) 0-946626-65-0, (US) 0-929497-44-9

The Green Face (1916), Dedalus/Ariadne, 1992 ISBN (UK) 0-946626-92-8, (US) 0-929497-37-6

Walpurgisnacht (1917), Dedalus/Ariadne, 1993 ISBN (UK) 1-873982-50-X, (US) 0-929497-71-6

The White Dominican (1921), Dedalus/Ariadne, 1994 ISBN (UK) 1-873982-55-0, (US) 0-929497-88-0

The Golem (1915), Dedalus/Ariadne, 1995 ISBN 1-873982-91-7
Hardback edition with 25 illustrations by Hugo Steiner-Prag, Tartarus Press, 2004, ISBN 1-872621-85-6

A new and quite superb translation” — Chris Gilmore, Interzone

The Dedalus Meyrink Reader, Dedalus, 2010 ISBN 978 1 903517 85 7

an anthology of newly translated stories and articles by Meyrink together with extracts from previously published translations

The Short Stories of Gustav Meyrink, volume II Dedalus, 2023 ISBN 978 1 915568 05 2 ebook ISBN 9781 915568 37 3

Volume I (2023), also from Dedalus, contains stories mostly translated by Maurice Raraty. ISBN 9781915568045

Robert Musil

The Confessions of Young Törless with introduction and notes by Ritchie Robertson, OUP, Oxford World's Classics, 2014 ISBN 978-0-19-966940-0

Modern German fiction

Catali Dennhof A Houseful of Ghosts Arabeskenverlag, 2017 (ebook) ISBN 9783981881929
GuiltLESS. The Long Journey of Amadeus Glückskind Arabeskenverlag, 2019 ISBN 978-3-981881981
Karen Duve The Prepper Room (Macht) Dedalus, 2017 ISBN 9781910213728

It is excellent to see work of this versatile writer translated from German — and so effectively. More please!” Silvia Sovic, European Literature Network.

Eugen Egner Androids from Milk Dedalus, 2001 ISBN 1-903517-02-8-064-7
Max Frisch An Answer from the Silence: a story from the mountains (1937) Seagull Books, 2011 ISBN 13 978 9064 792 7
Friedrich Glauser

Click here to see an interview with Peter Rozovsky on this work.

Thumbprint (1936) Bitter Lemon Press, 2004 ISBN 1-904738-00-1

In Matto's Realm (1936) Bitter Lemon Press, 2005 ISBN 1-904738-06-0

Fever (1937) Bitter Lemon Press, 2006 ISBN 1-904738-14-1

The Spoke (1937) Bitter Lemon Press, 2008 ISBN 978-1-904738-27-5

The Chinaman (1938) Bitter Lemon Press, 2007 ISBN 978-1-904738-21-3

Petra Hammesfahr

The Lie (2003),Bitter Lemon Press, 2009 ISBN 9781904738428

Hammesfahr makes this story, preposterous in outline, work with great success, largely through the quality of her writing which, in Mike Mitchell's translation, tells a compelling tale.”— Jane Jakeman, The Independent

Florian Kalbeck

The House of the Linsky Sisters (1990) Ariadne, 1996 ISBN 1-57241-026-4

His Pencil's Sharp Strokes / Mit seines Stiftes Spitze (bilingual edition) Mandelbaum, Vienna, 2004 ISBN 3-85476-126-0

Anna Kim

Frozen Time (2008) Ariadne, 2010 ISBN 9781572411722

Helmut Krausser

The Great Bagarozy (1997), Dedalus, 1998 ISBN 1-873982-04-6

The Babel Denotation (1999), ARD, 1999
long poem; the libretto of a radio piece that won an award at 1999 Prix Italia

The Little Gardens of Maestro Puccini, film script; for Rowohlt Medien, 1999

Eros (2006), Europa Editions, New York, 2008 ISBN 978-1-933372-58-7

Thomas Lehr September: Mirage  (2010), Seagull Books, 2013 ISBN  9780857420787

Matthias Mander The Cassowary  (1979), Ariadne, 1994 ISBN  0-929497-73-2

Andreas Okopenko

Child Nazi (1999),Ariadne, 2003 ISBN 1-57241-116-3

Michael Mitchell has succeeded brilliantly with Okopenko's often lyrical text”— David Scrase, Modern Austrian Literature

Markus Orths The Staff Room  (2003), Dedalus, 2008 ISBN 978-1-903517-55-0

For the last 25 years Dedalus — the withdrawal of Arts Council funding notwithstanding — has made an important contribution to British culture by publishing European fiction in translation. They love writers who deal in what they call distorted reality — the unusual, bizarre and surreal — such as this wonderful satire, translated from German by Mike Mitchell, which is as funny as it is savage.”— David Sinclair, Tribune

Martin Prinz On the Run  (2002), Dedalus, 2005 ISBN 1-903517-36-2

Herbert Rosendorfer

The Architect of Ruins (1969), Dedalus, 1992 ISBN (UK) 0-946626-91-X, (US) 0-7818-0001-3

German for Gastarbeiter in The London Magazine, October/November 1993

Stephanie (1977), Dedalus, 1995 ISBN 1-873982-17-8

Letters Back to Ancient China (1983), Dedalus, 1997 ISBN 1-873982-97-6

Grand Solo for Anton (1976), Dedalus, 2006 ISBN 1-903517-45-1

Ralf Rothmann

Fire Doesn't Burn, Seagull Books, 2012 ISBN 13-978-0-8574-2-047-3

Franz Rottensteiner (editor) The Black Mirror & Other Stories: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Germany & Austria (1871–2008), with introduction and notes, Wesleyan University Press, 2008 ISBN 978-0-8195-6830-4 hardback; 978-0-8195-6831-1 paperback

Mitchell seems to have relatively little prior experience with SF, but he persuasively captures the tone of the different eras without homogenizing the language into some contemporary version of SF-speak…”— Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

Frank Schätzing

Death and the Devil (1999), William Morrow, 2007 ISBN 978-0-06-134948-5

Hansjörg Schneider

The Basel Killings (2021), Bitter Lemon Press

PB ISBN  978-1-913394-547
eB USC ISBN 978-1-913394-554
eB ROW ISBN 978-1-913394-561

German title: Hunkeler macht Sachen

Silver Pebbles (2022), Bitter Lemon Press

PB ISBN  978-1-913394-622
eB USC ISBN 978-1-913394-639
eB ROW ISBN 978-1-913394-646

German title: Silberkiesel

György  Sebestyén

The Works of Solitude (1986), Ariadne, 1991 ISBN 0-929497-21-X

A Man too White, Ariadne, 1993 ISBN 0-929497-27-9

Uwe Tellkamp

The Tower (2008), Allan Lane, 2014 ISBN 9780241004579

Mitchell does a masterful job of translating Tellkamp's prose in a nuanced and balanced manner without sacrificing reading fluidity. His sensitive rendering also makes it possible to follow Tellkamp's stylistic shift from a kind of bourgeois realism à la Thomas Mann in the first half of the novel to echoes of so-called socialist realism in the second.” — Bradley Schmidt in Asymptote November, 2014

Hermann Ungar

The Maimed (1928), Dedalus, 2002 ISBN 1903517109

Ungar's understated prose (perfectly captured by veteran translator Mitchell)” — Kirkus Reviews

The Class (1927), Dedalus, 2004 ISBN 1903517192

Keff Vidala Until Love finds us (2016), BoD-Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2019 ISBN-13: 9783750416024
Josef Winkler The Serf (1987), Ariadne, 1997 ISBN-13: 1-57421-021-3

German plays

Ingeborg Bachmann The Radio Family with afterword by Joseph McVeigh — 15 episodes written for the popular radio soap opera broadcast in the American sector of occupied Vienna in the 1950s — Seagull Books, 2014 ISBN 978-0-8574-2-191-3
Thomas Bernhard Over all the Mountain Tops , Ariadne, 2004 ISBN 1-57241-128-7
Peter Handke Till Day You Do Part: A Question of light , Seagull Books, London, New York, Calcutta, 2010 ISBN 9781906497736
Ödön von Horváth Tales from the Vienna Woods & Other Plays (1931-1933) Ariadne, 2002 ISBN 1-57241-108-2 containing also
  • The Italian Evening
  • Casimir and Caroline
  • Faith, Love, Hope
Werner Schwab An Anthology of Plays Ariadne, 2000 ISBN 1-57241-064-7 containing
  • First Ladies
  • First Ladies was produced at the Trap Door Theatre Chicago in March 2011.

    “…First Ladies is a laugh-out-loud, sickening, gasp-inducing, ridiculous, revelatory, hypnotic masterpiece. It is marvelous and macabre. It is splendid and sordid. It is clever and carnal. It is vicarious, vicious and vile. It is glorious and gruesome. It is preposterous and pathetic. It is lovely and lethal. It is ravaging and resplendent. It is Trap Door at its most morbidly magnificent and it is a once in a lifetime theatrical treasure. Fortunately for you, this production has just opened so you can see it without the need of a time machine. Don't wait until it is too late.” —Venus Zarris in Chicago Stage Review

  • OVERWEIGHT, unimportant: MISSHAPE
  • OVERWEIGHT was produced at the Trap Door Theatre Chicago in October/November 2011.

    “With hilarious chill, Werner Schwab's OVERWEIGHT, unimportant: MISSHAPE plunges into the dark, unknowable depths of human longing, Never before has degradation, perverse loneliness, and mankind's toxic ego been so funny. Steppenwolf member Yasen Prankov directs the U.S. premiere.”

  • The Round of Pleasure
  • The Round was produced at the New Stage Theatre Company, New York, November/December 2007.

    “The … production of Schwab's The Round of Pleasure is a Viennese treat, a rich dessert from Mittel Europa that breaks all the artificially imposed rules of political correctness … Round has no social conscience, while also having as complete a picture of society's moral hypocrisies and ethical duplicities as one can get in an hour and a half.” — Larry Litt in The New York Theatre Wire, 2007

Biography

Asmaa Alghoul and Selim Nassib (from French) A Rebel in Gaza: Behind the Lines of the Arab Spring, One Woman's Story Doppelhouse Press, 2018 ISBN  9780998777054 (pb) 9780998777023 (hb)
Ingeborg Bachmann War Diary Seagull Books, 2011 ISBN 9780857420084
Pascal Bruckner (from French) A Dutiful Son  Dedalus ISBN 978-1-910213-16-2 paperback; 970-1-910-213-17-9 ebook (2015)
Erwin Blumenfeld (with Brian Murdoch)   Eye to I: the Autobiography of a Photographer (1976) Thames & Hudson, 1999 ISBN 0-500-01907-X
Hans Magnus Enzensberger Tumult  Seagull Books, 2016 ISBN  978-0-8574-2-370-2 paperback Gone but not forgotten  Seagull Books, 2022 ISBN  978-0-8574-2-977-3 hardback

A collection of ideas and outlines for film and theatre projects.

Max Frisch

Drafts for a third sketchbook Seagull Books, 2013 ISBN 978-0-85742-169-2

Erich Hackl Three Tearless Histories  Doppelhouse Press ISBN  9780997003437 hardback, 978-0-9970034-3-7 paperback (2016)
Katrin Himmler The Himmler Brothers: A German Family History (2005),  Macmillan, 2007 ISBN 978-0-230-52907-6 hardback; 978-0-330-44814-7 paperback (2017)
Sarah Kaminsky (from French) Adolfo Kaminsky: A Forger's Life,  Doppelhouse Press ISBN 9780997003406 hardback; 0780997003475 paperback (2016)
Hans A. Neunzig Brahms (1973),  Haus Publishing 2003 ISBN 0-904341-17-9
:

History, art and thought

Arthur Brühlmeier

Head, Heart and Hand: Education in the Spirit of Pestalozzi Sophia Books, 2010 ISBN 9781906924997

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

class="book">

Anarchy Seagull Books, 2018 ISBN 9780857426000

Stefan Klein

(UK) On the Edge of Infinity, Cassell, 2018 ISBN 9781788400602

(US) How to love the Universe: a scientist's odes to the hidden beauty behind the visible world The Experiment, LLC, 2018 ISBN 9781615194865; ebook 9781615195084

The German title is Das All und das Nichts.

Kai Kupferschmidt

BLUE, The Experiment, New York, 2021 ISBN 9781615197521

picture “In readily accessible prose, Kupferschmidt, an experienced science reporter, walks readers through intricate material in chapters that describe blue in stones, vision, plants, language, and animals… The complexities are laid out with wonderful diagrams and illustrations in an engaging and approachable manner… BLUE is charming and readable.”—: Booklist

Adolf Loos

Ornament and Crime: Selected Essays Ariadne, 1998 ISBN 1-57241-046-9

Loos's essays, well translated into English for the first time by Michael Mitchell [are] the unquestioned gem of this or any publishing season” — Robert Dassanowsky, American Book Review

On Architecture Ariadne, 2002 ISBN 1-57241-098-1

Heinz Politzer

Freud & Tragedy Ariadne, 2006 ISBN 1-57241-146-5

Maurice Rajsfus (from French)

(with Phyllis Aronoff) Operation Yellow Star,Doppelhouse Press 2017 ISBN 9780997818406 (hardback), 9780997003499 (paperback)

Leopold Schwarzschild

Chronicle of a Downfall: Germany 1929-1939, editor Andreas Wesemann, I.B. Tauris (2010) ISBN 9781848852891

A collection of articles from Das Tage-Buch and Das Neue Tage-Buch

German travel

Roland Hill Scotland  Tauris Parke, 2002 with photographs by Ulrich Müller

Anthologies

Mike Mitchell (editor and translator) The Dedalus/Ariadne Book of Austrian Fantasy: The Meyrink Years 1890-1930(1992) Dedalus ISBN 0 946626 93 6 Ariadne Press ISBN 0 929497 63 5 This contains 31 stories, four of which were translated by Maurice Raraty.

The Dedalus Book of Austrian Fantasy: 1890-2000(2003) Dedalus ISBN 1 903517 13 3 This contains 43 stories, 11 of which are also in the earlier volume.

This is one of the best anthologies – as an anthology – I have ever read. It now has 43 tales in it, all of them exciting, all beautifully translated … It also has an excellent introduction, describing the particular qualities of Austrian – as opposed to German, or any other – literatures.
AS Byatt The Guardian

French fiction

Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès Where Tigers are at Home Dedalus, 2011 ISBN (hardback) 9781907650161 ISBN (e-book) 9781907650581

“… Long in the making, and rejected by thirty-five publishers, this clever, exuberant philosophical novel, the winner of three major French prizes, now appears in a splendidly complicit, fluent, vivid translation by Mike Mitchell…” David Coward, Times Literary Supplement 27.07.12

See also Prizes and awards.

Pascal Bruckner My Little Husband  Dedalus, 2013 ISBN 978-1-909232-31-0 (printed); 978-1-909232-59-4 (ebook)
Mercedes Deambrosis Milagrosa  Dedalus, 2002 ISBN 190351701X An Afternoon with Rock Hudson  Dedalus, 2005 ISBN 1903517354
Sylvie Germain Hidden Lives (2008)  Dedalus, 2010 ISBN 9781903517925
Stéphanie Hochet Ink in the Blood  Dedalus, 2015 ISBN 9781910213117

“‘Hochet’ is French for ‘rattle’; this is a good rattling, as in unsettling, story.” Nicholas Lezard, Guardian, 10.10.15

Jean-Pierre Ohl The Lairds of Cromarty  Dedalus, 2012 ISBN 9781907650741 (from Les Maîtres de Glenmarkie, 2008) The Devil's Road  Dedalus, 2019 ISBN 9781910213933 ebook 9781912868131
Georges Rodenbach Bruges-la-Morte  Dedalus, 2005 ISBN 1903517230

(Introduction by Alan Hollinghurst; with Death Throes of Towns translated by Will Stone)

The Bells of Bruges  Dedalus, 2007 ISBN 9781903517543

“There are few novels that quickly astound. This is one of them. Flawlessly translated,…” Herald 03.11.07

See also Prizes and awards.

Hans Cadzand's Vocation and Other Stories Dedalus, 2011 ISBN 9781903517864