Goethe and the Poodle
Albert Lindner’s «The Dog of Aubri» (1869)
Summary
– Professor Kim Marra, University of Iowa
“In Goethe and the Poodle, you get not only an extraordinary play but, also, extraordinary history. Young and Marks make Lindner's nineteenth-century play accessible, bringing out its humor and its theatricality. In the introduction and footnotes, they use the play to teach the reader about the sweep of nineteenth-century German theater, from Goethe and French melodrama through to unified Germany. The book is eminently teachable, in German as well as English, and very entertaining.”
– Professor Matt Cornish, Ohio University
Goethe and the Poodle is the first English translation of scholar Albert Lindner's 1869 play Der Hund des Aubri, which premiered at Berlin's Wallner Theater during the German Wars of Unification. Inspired by actual events, Lindner's eccentric play stages the conspiracy to bring a popular melodrama featuring a trained poodle to the Weimar Court theater in 1817, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's resistance to the performance, and his subsequent departure after leading the theater for 26 years. Thorough annotations explain the play's cultural and geographic references, and the introductory essay analyzes aesthetic debates surrounding Weimar Classicism, popular taste, and animal performance. Archival images including playbills, portraits, and the 1812 Weimar Theater Laws supplement the volume's contributions to theater history.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword: Albert Lindner: The Playwright and His Plays in Context (Dan Venning)
- Bibliography
- Introduction: Goethe, Diegetic Dogs, and Albert Lindner’s The Dog of Aubri (Catherine M. Young)
- Pixérécourt’s Dragon the Dog, Diegetic Animal par Excellence
- Vienna’s German Version: The Dog of Aubri de Mont-Didier
- Weimar Classicism: “A harmoniously high spirit”
- “No dog may be brought into the theater”
- Lindner’s The Dog of Aubri: “The poodle has arrived”
- Dr. Cohn’s Call for Modern German Drama
- Act 2: “Your downfall will be caused by a poodle”
- Act 3’s Poodle Lament and Final Sentimentality
- Concluding with Caroline
- Bibliography
- Der Hund des Aubri. Ein Zeit-Bild in 3 Acten von Dr. Albert Lindner, Berlin, 1869: Transposed from Fraktur (Christine Marks, Kelsey Wang, and Catherine M. Young)
- The Dog of Aubri: A Portrait of an Era in 3 Acts by Dr. Albert Lindner, Berlin, 1869 (Catherine M. Young and Christine Marks)
- Bibliography
- Translators’ Dialogue
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
Edited and Translated by Catherine M. Young and Christine Marks
Goethe and the Poodle
Albert Lindner’s
The Dog of Aubri (1869)
Foreword by Dan Venning
Oxford · Berlin · Bruxelles · Chennai · Lausanne · New York
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at
<http://dnb.d-nb.de>.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lindner, Albert, 1831-1888, author. | Young, Catherine M., editor, translator. | Marks, Christine (Professor), editor, translator.
Title: Goethe and the Poodle : Albert Lindner’s the Dog of Aubri (1869) /
[edited and translated by] Catherine M. Young and Christine Marks.
Other titles: Der Hund des Aubri. English
Description: Oxford; New York: Peter Lang, 2025. | Series: German studies in America, 0721-3727; vol no. 81 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2024057780 (print) | LCCN 2024057781 (ebook) | ISBN 9781803743714 (paperback) | ISBN 9781803745602 (ebook) | ISBN 9781803745619 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832--Drama. | LCGFT: Drama.
Classification: LCC PT2424.L4 H8613 2025 (print) | LCC PT2424.L4 (ebook)
| DDC 832/.8--dc23/eng/20241206
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024057780
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024057781
This publication transposes the German version of Albert Lindner’s Der Hund des Aubri:
Ein Zeit-bild in 3 Acten from the Fraktur font to Times New Roman based on a digital copy accessed from the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Münster.
This project was funded by an American Society for Theatre Research Collaborative Research Award, Princeton University’s Frank D. Graham Research Fund, Anonymous Undergraduate Research Fund, and the Princeton University Committee on Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Cover image: Goethe and the Poodle © 2024 Jason Smith
Cover design Peter Lang Group AG
ISSN 0721-3727
ISBN 978-1-80374-371-4 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-1-80374-560-2 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-1-80374-561-9 (E-PUB)
DOI 10.3726/b22008
© 2025 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne, Switzerland
Published by Peter Lang Ltd, Oxford, United Kingdom
Catherine M. Young and Christine Marks have asserted their right
under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be identified as Editors of this Work.
Production or reading inquiries for the English translation of
The Dog of Aubri can be sent to DogofAubri@gmail.com
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
For Mary Anne Confer Young and Patrick Joseph Young,
who would have been pleased.
Contents
DAN VENNING
Foreword
Albert Lindner: The Playwright and His Plays in Context by:
CATHERINE M. YOUNG
Introduction
Goethe, Diegetic Dogs, and Albert Lindner’s The Dog of Aubri by:
CHRISTINE MARKS, KELSEY WANG, AND CATHERINE M. YOUNG (EDS.)
Der Hund des Aubri. Ein Zeit-Bild in 3 Acten von Dr. Albert Lindner, Berlin, 1869
CATHERINE M. YOUNG AND CHRISTINE MARKS (EDS./TRANS.)
The Dog of Aubri: A Portrait of an Era in 3 Acts by Dr. Albert Lindner, Berlin, 1869
Details
- Pages
- XXII, 152
- Publication Year
- 2025
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781803745602
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781803745619
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9781803743714
- DOI
- 10.3726/b22008
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2025 (July)
- Keywords
- Berlin Carl August court intrigue diegetic dogs Germany Goethe Caroline Jagemann Melodrama metatheatrical performance poodle power struggle theater theater Laws Theater an der Wien Vienna Weimar Weimar Classicism Wallner Theater
- Published
- Oxford, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, 2025. xxii, 152 pp., 14 fig. col., 7 fig. b/w.
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG
