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Sinclair Lewis in German

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Arpad Steiner
Arpad Steiner*
Affiliation:
Hunter College
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Abstract

[Sinclair Lewis is generally looked upon as the representative American novelist of this generation. His popularity is partly due to his censorious attitude toward American conditions. If for no other reasons, German translators of his works ought to take more care in rendering his ideas than hitherto. Four of his novels in the translations of three different interpreters give a distorted picture of American life and manners.]

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 6 , Issue 4-Part2: Language Monograph No. 7: Curme Volume of Linguistic Studies , December 1930 , pp. 134 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © 1930 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 March 16 (1930), 7.

2 Op. cit. 19.

2a Cf. F. Schönemann's summary of such tendencies in Sachwörterbuch der Deutschkunde, Teubner, 1930, I, 30.

2b As this article is going to press, E. Hilburg's essay in Zeitschrift f. frz. u. engl. Unterricht 1930, 539 ff. gives singularly weighty evidence for the significance of Sinclair Lewis in German eyes.

3 For convenience, the following abbreviations will be used : B for Babbitt, A for Arrowsmith, J for The Job (Der Erwerb), C for The Man Who Knew Coolidge (Der Mann der den Präsidenten kannte); the first figures denote the page of the original, the second that of the translation.

4 Paul Kornfeld, on occasion of Dodsworth recently translated into German, in Das Tagebuch, March 8 (1930), 382: “Es gibt wenige Bücher, deren Erscheinen ein Ereignis bedeutet: die Bücher von S. Lewis gehören zu ihnen.”

5 German reviewers do not appear to have paid much attention to the value of the translations. F. Schönemann remarks, reviewing Babbitt: 'Daisy Bródys Übersetzung ist alles in allem lesbar.' Die Literatur (1925), 497. More interesting is the frank admission of an anglist: E. Rosenthal, on occasion of the Tauchnitz edition of Arrowsmith, says: 'Sprachlich ist die Lektüre des Werkes eine Anstrengung; das Überwiegen des Slang macht ein umfangreiches Wort- und Sachregister notwendig.' Die Neueren Sprachen (1928), 368.