Alraune
by Hanns Heinz Ewers
Numbered Limited Edition - $100.00
Fine, with printed and embossed boards, w/o dj., as issued
OUT OF PRINT FROM THE PUBLISHER
ISBN: 798-0-9542953-6-3
Side Real Press; limited to 350 numbered copies w/o dust jacket, as issued
A new, fully restored, uncensored translation by Joe E. Bandel
Hanns Ewers (1871-1943) wrote some of the strangest tales of the period, including three (vaguely) autobiographical novels and several volumes of short stories many of which refer to his major themes of obsession, transformation, depavity and blood. This was in addition to his extensive travels worldwide, his activities as a propagandist/spy during WWI, screenwriter, poet, playwright, prodigious drug (ab)user and associations with members of Nazi elite. Hitler himself supposedly asked him to write the official biography of Horst Wessel which he did, but was subsequently declared an unperson by the Nazis (he was nationalistic rather than anti-semitic) his books banned and burnt. He died in Berlin of tuberculosis largely forgotten.
Alraune (first published in 1911) was Ewers' best selling novel, and is a (sort of) melding of the Frankenstein theme & Mandrake legend, injected with Ewers recurring interests in abherrent sexuality, perversity and violence, both physical and moral.
This entirely new translation (fully sanctioned by the Ewers estate) supercedes the previous edition from the John Day Company (1929), by including passages previously excised (by U.S. censors?) from the Ewers' original German text, as well as a myriad other minor amendments and corrections, which combine to make this new version a far more graphic and intense reading experience.
It also retains the wonderful Mahlon Blaine endpapers, chapter headings, initial letters and illustrations from the John Day edition, which are generally regarded as some of his best work.
'Alraune' Frontispiece and title page. (Click on the image for a larger version.)There are also three new essays illuminating aspects of this volume.
Contents:
An extra presentation 1929 frontispiece drawing by Mahlon Blaine
'The Root of Evil; Hanns Heinz Ewers and 'Alraune'' by Mark Samuels
'Alraunes' Allure' by Tyler Davis
'Translating 'Alraune'' by Joe E. Bandel
'Galeotto' - a previously untranslated poem by Hanns Ewers - Translated by Joe E. Bandel
'Alraune' fully restored version translated by Joe E. Bandel
Illustrations - from the original 1911 German edition - by Ilna Wunderwald Ewers
