The Doppelganger with Aquis Submersus — Theodor Storm

The fifth selection of Denis Jackson's path-breaking translations of Storm's classic novellas, containing what is unaccountably the first English translation of the title story, one of its author's most subtly told narratives. "A Doppelgnger" is the story of a reformed ex-prisoner who is unemployable in mid-19th-century north Germany; the stark events of his life, pieced together after his death, are in sharp contrast to his daughter's tender memories. In the long-admired tale "Aquis submersus", the meaning of a mysterious inscription on the portrait of a dead child is unraveled in the course of a story that is both a powerful critique of the landowning Junker class and a tragedy of passion. Translated by Denis Jackson. "The German master's art at its most concentrated and powerful...To read both these novellas is to undergo a memorable and moving literary experience."-Paul Binding