The Adventure of the German Student [short fiction]
by Washington Irving
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Description
A stay in Paris should be just the tonic for a distracted and insular German student. But it is the beginning of the French Revolution and the blood-stained guillotine is doing its grisly work every day. So when the student encounters a beautiful, distraught woman in need of comfort on its steps in the dead of night, he doesn't consider this meeting perhaps as strange as he should. The Adventure of the German Student is taken from the Victorian Anthologies series featuring short stories by show more classic writers of the spooky, the scary and the supernatural. Guaranteed to give you the shivers, each collection includes familiar and loved creepy tales as well as those less well-known. With music by Benedict Edwards. show lessTags
Member Reviews
This is a grim little romantic horror with a nice bit of grand guignol at the end. Washington plays to the sexual longing of the young male reader and the story is set thirty years before in what was still truly frightening for many middle class readers - the French Revolution.
The Revolution stood in its time relation to this story as the fall of the Berlin Wall does to us - there is a before (alien except in myth to the young) and an after (the opportunity to use the past as exemplar). The 'shadow of the gullotine' and decapitation are central to the tale.
Set in a shadowy Europe (truly 'other' to most American readers of the age), the young student is neurotic and infected with German Idealism, quite unlike the solid pragmatic New York show more of the day. A fine little story of its stype, it is nonetheless just a classy horror confection, pulp before its time. show less
The Revolution stood in its time relation to this story as the fall of the Berlin Wall does to us - there is a before (alien except in myth to the young) and an after (the opportunity to use the past as exemplar). The 'shadow of the gullotine' and decapitation are central to the tale.
Set in a shadowy Europe (truly 'other' to most American readers of the age), the young student is neurotic and infected with German Idealism, quite unlike the solid pragmatic New York show more of the day. A fine little story of its stype, it is nonetheless just a classy horror confection, pulp before its time. show less
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Lovecraft's 'Supernatural Horror in Literature' Reading List
216 works; 8 members
Author Information
782+ Works 26,940 Members
Washington Irving, one of the first Americans to achieve international recognition as an author, was born in New York City in 1783. His A History of New York, published in 1809 under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker, was a satirical history of New York that spanned the years from 1609 to 1664. Under another pseudonym, Geoffrey Crayon, he wrote show more The Sketch-book, which included essays about English folk customs, essays about the American Indian, and the two American stories for which he is most renowned--"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." Irving served as a member of the U.S. legation in Spain from 1826 to 1829 and as minister to Spain from 1842 to 1846. Following his return to the U.S. in 1846, he began work on a five-volume biography of Washington that was published from 1855-1859. Washington Irving died in 1859 in New York. show less
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Great Classic Hauntings: Six Unabridged Stories (Audio Editions Mystery Masters) by Geraint Wyn Davies
Great Tales of Terror from Europe and America: Gothic Stories of Horror and Romance 1765-1840 by Peter Haining
H.P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural: 19 Classics of the Macabre, Chosen by the Master of Horror Himself by H. P. Lovecraft
Washington Irving : Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveller, The Alhambra (Library of America) by Washington Irving (indirect)
The works of Washington Irving containing The sketch book, Knickerbocker's history of New York, Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a traveller, A chronicle of the conquest of Granada, The Alhambra by Washington Irving (indirect)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Adventure of the German Student [short fiction]
- Alternate titles
- The Tale of the German Student
- Original publication date
- 1824
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 16
- Popularity
- 1,513,795
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.60)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook
- ISBNs
- 1
- ASINs
- 3
