I am pleased to announce that my translation of Hanns Heinz Ewers “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is now available in Hard Cover, quality paperback and pdf version at lulu.com. Here is the link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/anarchistbanjo
The First Volume in the Frank Braun trilogy. This is the first uncensored English translation of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. It includes an Introduction by Dr. Wifried Kugel; the poems, “Prometheus” by Goethe,and “Hymn to Satan” by Carducci; “The Satanism of Hanns Heinz Ewers”, “Duality-The Male”, “Duality-The Female”,and “Duality-Sexual Alchemy” by Joe Bandel and the complete text of “Synagogue of Satan” by Stansislaw Przybyszewski also translated by Joe Bandel.
For several years after writing “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” Hanns Heinz Ewers gave highly successful lectures on “The Religion of Satan” which were based upon “The Synagogue of Satan”. His view of “Satanism” is highly different than what is popular today and shows that his belief in the future of humanity lies in the balancing of the male/female aspects within us and not in two eternal forces in opposition, good/evil. For him Satanism was the emancipation of women.
Due to the extensive footnotes/endnotes and illustrations this will not be offered in epub version. The epub version has difficulty with both footnotes and large numbers of illustrations.
On a side note, Side Real Press has the text prepared for “Hanns Heinz Ewers Brevier” which will also be coming out soon in limited edition through Side Real Press and regular hardcover at Lulu. More on this when it is available.
thanks,
-joe
Hello Joe. I finally picked up and read the Side Real edition of Alraune. I was entranced by both the narrative and the sinewy poetry of your English rendition. I found it so rich and redolent that I slowed my steps through it, savoring the richness of the language, characters and events. A masterful, inspired work, that–by all appearances to a German-ignorant reader–found in you a preternaturally attuned Englisher. I’d read Nacht Mahr a few years ago, and deeply enjoyed those stories. But Alraune is disturbingly exalted. I found myself irrationally alarmed that I might cross paths with the fraulein and be ensnared by her fatal allure. The Side Real volume makes a worthy reliquary for this literary marvel. I wish Mr. Smith could be persuaded to give the same treatment to your translation of Sorcerer’s Apprentice, rather than merely reprinting the John Day version–which is, after all, still somewhat readily available. Even though Ewers himself oversaw the earlier translation, I believe it would benefit from, and be enlivened by, a 21st century voicing. Perhaps John may yet alter his course. Besides that, I anticipate relishing the revelation of your Vampire translation. Best wishes!
Thank you so much for the inspiring comment. Not many people comment these days. Yes, Alraune is certainly alive in some manner. It is a joy to be able to connect with her and express her through the written word.She lives on through the ages, as it should be. You can perhaps tell that I love Alraune as well. Chuckle.
I struggled for a few years on whether to translate Sorcerer’s and finally decided to simply do a strong editing of it while adding the small censored portions. It was only while editing chapter nine that I finally realized how extensive my revisions really were and how unfair it would be to call those revisions the original work. So I modernized it somewhat and still believe it reads much more true to the original intent.
Vampire is unfolding a bit at a time, and I know that will be an eye opener as well. I might agree to your above comment about being preternaturally attuned. It is sometimes spooky how close I feel to this work.
Once more, many thanks for the comment and enjoy the rest!
-joe
Greetings from a Spanish reader of Ewers and your translations, Mr. Bandel. My question is: Will we have to wait a lot until we see the modern editions both of “Vampire” and the second volume of Ewers’ short stories come to light?. After having sampled some of Ewers’ twisted genius, I can’t wait to see these remaining ones published and my claws clasped firmly around them. Could you please give us an estimate for these works to be published in the near future?.
Thank you so much for your hard work and your personal interest in reviving this forgotten author for the modern reader.
Thank you for your interest! Hanns Heinz Ewers Volume II is almost finished. I hope to have it available next month in January. By almost finished I mean I need to translate about twenty more pages and then collect all the stories together. Vampire should go fast and I plan to have it finished this spring with an introduction by Dr. Kugel. I am currently struggling with working overtime on my weekly job and working both weekend days at a second job. That makes things a bit of a struggle to fit more in but I remain resolved to get both stories out as soon as possible. Karl Hans Strobl’s “Lemuria” Part I will follow. “Lemuria” is far too long to be published as one book and that also needs only about 50 more pages before publication.
Thank you,
-joe
Will you release “Hanns Heinz Ewers Volume II” on EPUB format? I remember having purchased ‘Volume I’ in PDF format but I was never really happy with it: PDF’s are very cumbersome in my experience. It would be great for me to purchase both volumes of stories on EPUB format at the same time and enjoy them as they deserve on an ebook reader.
Cheers.
I will try doing an epub version, but it might not happen right away. Thank you for asking. I will do it. I was not going to. It has been a struggle just to get Volume II finished. I’m wrapping it up right now.
-joe
Update: Epub edition of HHEVII is now available at:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/joe-bandel-and-hanns-heinz-ewers/hanns-heinz-ewers-volume-ii/ebook/product-21441863.html
Is there any way to see a complete table of contents of “Short Stories Vol. II”? Does your edition include all the stuff previously featured on the “Munseys” website? You know what I mean: ‘Blood’, ‘Tomato Sauce’, ‘Mamaloi’, and so on.
Sorry for asking so many questions. I’m just thrilled that the wait is finally over; and thanks again both for your efforts and your prompt replies to my inquiries. Not every editor bears in mind the petitions of their customers…
Hanns Heinz Ewers Volume II is an interesting mix that leaves plenty of material for HHE Volume III! Here are the featured stories: The White Maiden Eleven Thousand Virgins and the Four Holy Three Kings The Water Corpse Carnival in Cadiz How Eleven Chinese Devoured Their Bride From the Journal of an Orange Tree The Lost Monkey Of Geese, Spirits, Leeches and the Cat Organ Fairy Land Alraune and Her Chauffeur (a published outtake from Alraune) The Last Will of Stanislawa d’Asp Mamaloi The Worst Betrayal This should come to a bit over 300 pages, which is my target. I will also include a short essay of my own. In my opinion “The Last Will of Stanislawa d’Asp” and “The Worst Betrayal” are among his best short stories. Hope to have this ready soon! Working on it now! -joe > Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 20:16:01 +0000 > To: joebandel@hotmail.com >
You must be picking up steam, as I see you have Vampire completed and a 2nd volume of Ewers’s short stories heading down the home stretch. Will both receive the handsome Side Real treatment in due time?
Oops! On re-reading I see that Vampire isn’t quote done. But getting there. I work lots of overtime at my day job as well, which I find makes writing articles for the local paper an onerous task. I don’t know how you manage your translation work, which is oodles more challenging.
Does this new volume of short fiction by Ewers contain all the stories previously featured on “NACHTMAHR: STRANGE TALES” by Side Real Press? If not, will we see a third volume of Ewers’ tales in the future? Thanks in advance. It would be so great to have all the entire corpus of Ewers short fiction in a modern translation…
HHEVII has a few stories that are found in the Nachtmare SideReal edition, but translated by me. The only story not translated by me is “Mamaloi”. Stories that have been translated for the first time ever are: “Eleven Thousand Virgins and the Four Holy Three Kings”, “How Eleven Chinese Devoured Their Bride”, “The Lost Monkey”, “Of Geese, Spirits, Leeches and the Cat Organ”, “The Last Will of Stanislawa d’Asp”, and “The Worst Betrayal”.
HHEVIII will include some of the existing stories as well as newly translated material but they will be my translations, not existing ones for the most part. Of the remaining corpus of short stories there probably remains enough for five volumes.
I have already purchased on e-book both volumes of H.H. Ewers’ short stories plus an electronic copy of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. I’ll be reading them soon. Thank you for making all these titles available on EPUB format at a phenomenal price. I hope “Vampire” will be released on EPUB too.
Could you please tell me what the differences are between your edition of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and the old one published by The John Day Company? Does the 1927 edition have missing passages or something? I happen to have one copy of that book and it is a violent novel even by today’s standards, it would be surprising to know it can be even nastier in your brand new edition.
And last but not least, will you keep editing more short stories by Ewers in the future? I am struck by your statement that there remains enough material for five more volumes. I would have never thought that the short fiction by Ewers was so abundant.
In the John Day editions of “Alraune”, “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, and “Vampire” it was a great surprise to find out that “Alraune” was pretty heavily censored and poorly translated. “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” was so badly translated that H. H. Ewers and his secretary went through it line by line to make corrections. The final result was quite close to the German original but with some awkward phrasing. I struggled for a long time before translating it and only then at first going for a strong edit. The subltle changes were simply too massive, especially in chapter nine as an example where difficult concepts were expressed. The rape scene was removed and some final pages about the making of film movies in a dialogue with Lotte at the end of the book. “Vampire” is suspected to have over 100 pages worth of material missing or cut. I know that there is a lot missing. I will be focussing on “Vampire” as soon as “Lemuria Volume I” by Karl Hans Strobl comes out in a couple weeks.
As for more short stories by Hanns Heinz Ewers I will be doing at least two more volumes and possibly the 5th to complete the series. Shrug. There is about half a volume of previously translated material left, but no longer available (out of print). As I do my own translating I don’t want to focus entirely on previously known works but on both known and unknown. There are perhaps enough good stories for 1 1/2 volumes with not so good stories as remainders. Obviously previous translators have cherry picked most of the stories, but for horror, cruelty and blood lust. Many good stories remain. These would fall under the category of weird fiction perhaps. The fifth volume would collect the remaining not so good fiction (if I translated them).
-joe
ps:
this does not include “Book of Fables”,”Moganni Nameh” (poetry) and “The Hired Grandmother and other stories” (illustrated adventure stories for children) which I will be putting out on their own as time permits.
right now I’m looking at:
Vampire (this spring)
Moganni Nameh (this summer)
Book of Fables (this summer)
and then either “Knight of the German Night” or “Fundvogel”.
But after a few books by other authors.
I read “The Worst Betrayal” yesterday and I loved it. Ewers is a master of the macabre and the horrific on a par with the great classic masters (Poe, Bierce, Maupassant, etc). He deserves a greater reputation. I’m looking forward for your edition of “Vampire”. Will it be released this month, perhaps?
I think that your work might be influencing other editors abroad. A few weeks ago a brand new anthology of Ewers’ tales was published here in Spain. Only “Alraune” (translated as “La Mandrágora”) and the short story “The Spider” had ever been translated into the Spanish language so far, so this is a very welcome addition for Spanish readers as well. It’s the first new release of a book by Ewers since 1976!
This is the book:
http://www.valdemar.com/product_info.php?products_id=713&osCsid=