The Hothouse

Proof copy. 8vo. Pp. 221, [1, blank]. Fawn wraps, printed in black. Author's Note, with further Notes about the Author and the Translator.

Light creasing to edges of front cover, else Fine.

Translated from the German and with an Introduction by Michael Hoffman. Originally published as Das Treibhaus by Scherz & Goverts, Stuttgart, 1953. The second novel in the author's great 'post-war trilogy,' preceded by Pigeons on the Grass (1951) and bookended by Death in Rome (1954). Named a 'Notable Book' by the New York Times and one of the Best Books of the Year by the Los Angeles Times.

Set in West Germany's temporary post-war capital, the novel traces the final two days in the life of a minor German politician. It was knocked off in a matter of weeks while Koeppen was holed up in a bunker hotel in Stuttgart, following a week spent in Bonn, imbibing the atmosphere. "A portrait of idealism crushed by political and personal compromise," the book is unequalled in its spot on description of the "hothouse" atmosphere of German politics in the Adenauer era.

Although sections of it date as far back as 1947 under the working title Ein Ölzweig auf ein Grab (An Olive Branch on a Grave), the manuscript wasn't submitted for publication until June 1953. Fearful that its verisimilitude to actual persons and events might incur the government's displeasure, Koeppen instructed his editor to tone down the text, suggestions which were not followed to the letter by Heinz Seewald. The revised manuscript was published on 4 November 1953 in an edition of 12000 copies, with two further impressions following in the same year. The paperback edition of 1955 was published in an abridged form, with most subsequent editions following suit. This English translation of the original edition is long overdue.

Subsequently pronounced "a provocative elegy," by Germany's Literaturpapst ("Pope of Literature"), Marcel Reich-Ranicki, initial critical reaction to Koeppen's "poetically charged, scathing, rhythmic prose," ensured his subsequent novelistic silence. He thereafter produced only travelogues and a short memoir, while being loyally kept on the payroll by his publisher, Suhrkamp, as a sort of literary pensioner. A scheduled reading in a Bonn bookshop that was to be followed by a public discussion with politicians had to be cancelled at short notice because police couldn't guarantee the author's safety.

A writers' writer, with his cachet amongst German authors and (lately) critics remaining sky-high, Koeppen's moody and allusive prose remains little read both in his home country and abroad. A 700-page collection of his prose scraps or inédits was published posthumously in 2000, under the title Auf dem Phantasieross (On the Wings of Imagination). Recipient of the Georg Büchner Prize (Germany's most important literary honour) in 1962. "A recovered masterpiece. Remarkable as a sidelong, searing appraisal of the legacy of the Nazi years." –Publishers Weekly, starred review.