Deutsch-englische Literaturbeziehungen: Der historische Roman Sir
Walter Scotts und seine deutschen Vorläufer. Von Frauke Reitemeier.
Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2001. Pp. 290. DM 88.
This book begins with a small but potent, and to many, I'm sure, quite surprising,
"smoking gun": Sir Walter Scott wrote his historical fiction under the influence of
a German novelist, Christiane Benedikte Naubert, who published approximately
one novel a year from the mid-1780s to 1806. But there it is in Frenzel's standard
Daten deutscher Dichtung: "Scott wurde . . . angeregt durch eine dt. Schriftstellerin des
18. Jh., Benedikte Naubert" (Frenzel I, p. 2). It is easy to see how this little-known
bit of literary history could have stimulated an investigation that would trace the
circle of influence from Germany to Scotland. So it is: on page 20 Reitemeier
lays out the four parts of her investigation: German historical novels before Scott;
English historical novels before Scott; Scott's own production in its relation to
these predecessors; and finally, speculation concerning the reasons for these novels
(in reality, Naubert's novels) to have influenced Scott.
Thomas O. Beebee
Penn State University |
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