Suggest me some classic GErman novel?

Question

No Kafka, and Nietzsche because I already know.

Answer 1

Johann Wolfgang Goethe is where it's at dude. Slacking on the German lit I see.

Answer 2

Goethe's Faust is wonderful. It's also in verse form. At least, the first page is wonderful; I've never gotten much further.

For Hesse, I really liked Siddhartha and Narcissus und Goldmund, I liked Das Glasperlenspiel, aka Magister Ludi, and I couldn't get through Steppenwolf.

Goethe's most famous and influential work of fiction is probably the Sorrow of Werther, but that doesn't mean reading it would be a pleasure.

Answer 3

I like Hermann Hesse. Steppenwolf, Siddhartha & Narcissus and Golmund are my favorites. But also liked Peter Camenzind, Beneath the Wheel, Demian, Rosshalde, Gertrude, The Journey to the East and Magister Ludi (aka, The Glass Bead Game).

Answer 4

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Faust by Goethe. Goethe is Germany's Shakespeare. The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann.

Answer 5

E.T.A. Hoffmann: Der Sandmann
Heinrich Boell: Ansichten eines Clowns
Die verlorenen Ehre der Katharina Blum
Erich Kaestner: Fabian

Answer 6

I'd like to recommend Gunther Grass's "The Tin Drum" translated into English by Ralph Manheim (Vintage 1998). Grass is the Nobel Prize recipient for Literature in 1999 so the novel is worth reading. However, I think we can't understand all but you'd appreciate how he narrated as related to historic episodes and sometime funny ones.

Answer 7

All Quiet on the Western Front ERICH REMARQUE

Demian
Siddhartha
Steppenwolf HERMANN HESSE

Death in Venice
The Magic Mountain THOMAS MANN

Mephisto KLAUS MANN

http://us.penguinclassics.com/nf/Browse/BrowseStdPage/0,,223426,00.html