Robert Walser’s Little Snow Landscape is a collection of plotless stories–some only a page or two long–which capture Walser’s experience of the world. Walser was a struggling writer for most of his career. In 1933, Walser entered a clinic in Switzerland and stopped writing. He remained there for the rest of his life, dying in 1956 at the age of 78.
My favorite story in Little Snow Landscape is “Three Stories, Told Based on Book Covers.” Walser gazes at books in the window of a bookstore and creates three stories based on the cover artwork of the three books. Very clever, very innovative. If you’re looking for something to read outside of the mainstream, Robert Walser is your guy. GRADE: B
Table of Contents
Translator’s Note ix
To My Home 1
Two Little Fairy Tales 2
Lenz’s Soldiers 4
The Writer (I) 6
Wenzel 10
Farewell 18
Illusion 21
Büchner’s Flight 23
Cinema 25
Birch-Pfeiffer 27
Lenz 29
The Hermitage 34
Dream Vision 36
The Dressmaker 38
The Landscape (I) 40
Walking 42
The Shepherd 44
The Invitation 46
Sunday Morning 48
The Moon 49
Stroll (I) 51
Little Snow Landscape 53
Summer Night 55
Christmas 57
Hölderlin 59
Würzburg 62
The Worker 72
Chamber Piece 77
The Coward 79
The Sausage 81
Lamp, Paper, and Gloves 84
Berta 87
Louise 89
Rain 99
Pencil Note 101
Letter from Biel 103
The First Poem 106
The Comrade 109
The Proletarian 112
The Aviator 115
Munich 117
Jean 119
The Two Writers 121
Mutterseelenallein 122
Don Juan’s Letter 124
Three Stories, Told Based on Book Covers 126
The Beauty and the Faithful One 130
The Angel 131
Children and Small Houses 132
Geneva 134
The Yardstick 137
Four Characters 139
Notebook Extract 141
The Young Servant 144
A Lackey 146
A Sort of Narrative 148
Fairy Tale (II) 151
Book Review 153
Vacation (I) 155
Fragment 157
Walk in the Park 163
Recently I Read … 165
The Four Seasons 167
Stroll (II) 169
The Castle 171
Hats 173
Sunday Outing 175
The Canal 177
Childhood 179
Biographical Note 183
