After Midnight (Keun novel)

After Midnight
First edition cover
AuthorIrmgard Keun
Original titleNach Mitternacht
TranslatorJames Cleugh
Anthea Bell
LanguageGerman
GenrePolitical novel
Set inFrankfurt am Main, 1936
PublisherQuerido Verlag
Publication date
1937
Publication placeNetherlands
Published in English
1938
Media typePrint: hardback
Pages236[1]
833.912
LC ClassPT2621.E92 N313
Preceded byDas Mädchen, mit dem die Kinder nicht verkehren durften 
Followed byThird Class Express 

After Midnight (German: Nach Mitternacht) is a 1937 novel by Irmgard Keun, set in Frankfurt am Main during the early Nazi period.[2][3][4][5][6]

Plot

Frankfurt am Main, 1936. Sanna Moder is in love with her cousin Franz, and she and her friends try and enjoy life and what freedom they have in a city and country that is falling deeper under Nazi rule.[7]

Publication

After Midnight was rejected by Keun's Amsterdam-based publisher Allert de Lange, who feared that the book would damage the firm's commercial interests in Germany. Another Amsterdam-based publisher, Querido, would publish the book in 1937.[8] An English edition was published the following year by Alfred A. Knopf, translated by James Cleugh.[9]

Reception

In a 1985 review when it was reprinted, Publishers Weekly said of it, "Much of the material is dated, and the clever repartees, the little ironies seem sadly irrelevant now. Yet Keun's spirited defense of common decency stands out after all this time."[3] In Inside Story, Dr Geoff Wilkes called it "a minor masterpiece of satiric simplicity."[10]

Adaptations

In 1981, After Midnight was adapted into a film, directed by Wolf Gremm and starring Désirée Nosbusch as Sanna.[11][12][13]

References

  1. ^ Edelman, Hendrik (September 24, 2010). International Publishing in the Netherlands, 1933-1945: German Exile, Scholarly Expansion, War-Time Clandestinity. BRILL. ISBN 9789004187832 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ "A 'Midnight' Tale Of The Rising Third Reich". NPR.org.
  3. ^ a b "Book Review: After Midnight by Irmgard Keun, Author Victor Gollancz $18.95 (152p) ISBN 978-0-575-03656-7". PublishersWeekly.com.
  4. ^ "After Midnight by Irmgard Keun: 9781935554417 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com.
  5. ^ Grieser, Thomas (August 26, 2007). Irmgard Keuns "Nach Mitternacht" - ein Kleinbürgerroman aus Nazideutschland?. GRIN Verlag. ISBN 9783638649070 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Westerfield, Lillian Leigh (August 26, 2004). 'This Anguish, Like a Kind of Intimate Song': Resistance in Women's Literature of World War II. Rodopi. ISBN 9042011483 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ Keun, Irmgard (April 23, 2020). After Midnight. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 9780241391839 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ Weidermann, Volker (January 28, 2016). Summer Before the Dark: Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, Ostend 1936. Pushkin Press. ISBN 9781782272373 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ "After Midnight by Irmgard Keun, James Cleugh on Honey & Wax Booksellers". Honey & Wax Booksellers.
  10. ^ ""I feared I would never be able to write a book again"". Inside Story. October 20, 2011.
  11. ^ "Nach Mitternacht | filmportal.de". www.filmportal.de.
  12. ^ "NACH MITTERNACHT (1981)". BFI. Archived from the original on August 26, 2021.
  13. ^ "Kino: Ziegler Film Berlin". www.ziegler-film.com.