Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Critical Essay | Critical Review by Donald Douglas

Critical Review by Donald Douglas

SOURCE: "True Romance," in New York Herald Tribune, Vol. 6, No. 34, May 4, 1930, p. 2.

In the following review of an early English translation of The Saint, Douglas lauds the novella for its romantic elements.

Embedded like imperishable gems in a hidden fastness, the romances of Meyer have long lain hidden from English discoverers. Perhaps there is no German writer so difficult to translate; and the translation can only be done by one whose English matches the rich, subtle and complicated prose of Meyer's German. It is not a labor of love, but a labor of genius, and in the present translation there is love, no doubt, but there is not even skill, for Professor Hauch makes Meyer sound like Sir Walter Scott—of all funny people! None the less one must welcome the inauguration with a clamor of golden trumpets, for perhaps it may mark an era when...
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