Alexanderplatz Berlin, the Story of Franz Biberkopf

Author: Döblin, Alfred
Title: Alexanderplatz Berlin, the Story of Franz Biberkopf
Publication: New York: The Viking Press, 1931
Edition: First American Edition

Description: Hard Cover. Near Fine / Dust Jacket Included.

Two volumes. Translated by Eugene Jolas. First American edition, first printing. Publisher's gray cloth, with front boards and spines stamped in black and red, an illustration of a nude woman atop a lion to front boards, and gray top stain; original gray, red, and black dust jackets, with illustration to front panels; housed in publisher's gray slipcase, with front panel matching the front panel of the dust jacket. Near fine books, with some toning to spines; near fine unclipped dust jackets, with light wear to spine ends, and a few short closed tears to top edge of Vol. I's rear panel; very good slipcase, with light wear to edges, light fading to front panel, and some light spotting to top edge. Overall, a great set. Alexanderplatz Berlin follows Franz Biberkopf, a low-level criminal who is released from jail after serving four years for murdering his girlfriend. Franz attempts to go straight, but, as Döblin writes at the opening of the book, "he gets involved in a regular combat with something that comes from the outside, with something unaccountable, that looks like fate." The book is set during the decadent and nigh-apocalyptic atmosphere of late-1920s Weimar Republic in Germany, when fascism and Naziism are on the rise. The book is considered an expressionist masterpiece and has been compared favorably by many critics to James Joyce's Ulysses (1922). In 1980, the book was adapted into a 15-hour miniseries by the legendary German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Seller ID: ADO001

Subject: 20th Century, Fiction, Modern Firsts