Alraune in English for Less Than Hundreds of Dollars?

May 20, 2006 12:44 PM

I am trying to find a reading copy of an English translation of Hanns Heinz Ewers's novel Alraune. I have not had any luck. Can you help me?

Here's what I've tried so far:

1) An interlibrary loan search and request through my local library. This didn't turn up any circulating copies.

2) Used copies of the book in English all appear to be prohibitively expensive (USD 125-600), which may explain why the interlibrary loan request didn't pan out. I thought I might have found one in the UK for $60 (which is still a touch high, my current ceiling is around $40), but it turned out to be the German text. I have tried Alibris, Abebooks, Bookfinder, Amazon Marketplace (US and UK), eBay, and Powells.

3) Kessinger Publishing has an edition of Ewers's The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Alraune is a sequel of sorts to this book, so I e-mailed them to see if they had any plans to publish it, but I didn't get a response. I'm going to try sending them a physical letter, since I'm not sure I had a valid e-mail for them (or at least one that gets looked at with any regularity).

4) It's not on Google Book Search. Same with Project Gutenberg (US and Australian). A regular google search also failed to turn up an online copy ( terms: Alraune, "english translation", Ewers, "english text", some others).

What else can I try? I am not currently associated with any colleges or universities, so I don't think there are any academic resources open to me, but I live in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area if there's something I haven't thought of. "Learn German and read the original" is not currently an option (which is a pity because the original text is readily available and cheap from most German booksellers). Thanks for any suggestions!

posted by PinkStainlessTail to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

Best answer: Flint Public Library has it.

[if that link doesn't work because of session info, try searching from this link ]
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 2:14 PM on May 20, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks! Interestingly enough, that link also turns up an english translation from Arno Press available from Amazon for about thirty bucks. Don't know why I didn't come across it before.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 2:29 PM on May 20, 2006

Response by poster: Ah, because the Amazon listing is mispelt as Alruane. May also be out of print. Still that gives me a shot, as does knowing about the Flint and other nearby holdings, and the OCLC number. Maybe try to get my local to do another interlibrary loan armed with that. Thanks again!
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 2:42 PM on May 20, 2006

Hmm. Have I found your motivation? I didn't know that a GIS search turns up NSFW sex comics for either Alraune or Alruane.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 3:01 AM on May 21, 2006

Response by poster: Heh, no nothing so delightfully carnal. Guy Maddin's film Twilight of the Ice Nymphs was partially inspired by Ewers's novel, as well as Hamsun's Pan, Josef Von Sternberg's The Scarlet Empress and a few other things. I'm a huge Maddin fan, so I've been trying to get my hands on anything that was a source for him and screenwriter George Tolles in the various movies they've worked together on. Many of these sources are a bit obscure, Alraune and The Gimli Saga being the most elusive so far.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:40 AM on May 21, 2006

Response by poster: Followup: I used a print out of MonkSN's page above to get my library to try another OCLC search. They sourced a copy from the University of Dayton library. A great read, and it directly lead to this post.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 10:40 AM on July 11, 2006