The Bankrupt: A Social Tragedy in Five Acts

Müller, FlorianProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5

Word count: 187K words
Chapters: 19

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Der Bankerott: Eine gesellschaftliche Tragödie in fünf Akten by Florian MüllerAuthor: Müller, Florian,Language: German, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Oct 6, 2004

Editor's review

Der Bankerott: Eine gesellschaftliche Tragödie in fünf Akten is a five-act German social tragedy by Florian Müller, released free by Project Gutenberg. Titled "Bankruptcy," the work points to tragic conflict at the social level; generically it belongs to dramatic literature and is best approached as a German-language literary and dramatic text. Its highlight is the staging of social issues, and its five-act structure makes it convenient to analyze character relationships and the development of conflict; as a public-domain e-text, it is also easy to search dialogue and perform close reading. In terms of reading situations, it suits German learners as graded intensive-reading material, or drama enthusiasts analyzing structure and dialogue. Note that the available information provides no plot details or author biography, so readers should not presuppose a specific historical background; moreover, the work is in the original German, and the language barrier is a practical limitation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Language learners with intermediate or higher German reading ability
Readers interested in German drama and social tragedy
Teachers and students who need a public-domain German dramatic text for textual analysis
Literature enthusiasts who want to understand the theme of social conflict through plays

Not a good fit for

German beginners or readers unable to read the original
General readers who prefer narrative fiction to drama
Academic readers who need detailed author biography and compositional background

Reading tips

First read the table of contents and list of characters to clarify the five-act structure and main character relationships before entering the text.
German learners can read act by act intensively, writing three German sentences summarizing the conflict after each act.
Read key dialogue aloud, noting stage directions and characters' tone, to experience the rhythm of the drama.
With the title "Bankruptcy" in mind, record as you read how social conflict is presented in the play.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What is the play about?

The information only identifies it as a five-act social tragedy titled "Bankruptcy" and provides no detailed plot summary. Readers need to read the original to learn about the characters and conflict, and should not speculate about plot details from the title.

What level of German is needed to read it?

As a nineteenth-century-style German dramatic text, it is advisable to have at least intermediate reading ability, sufficient to handle longer dialogue and stage directions. Beginners can use a bilingual edition or annotated edition, first grasping the plot and then reading the language intensively.

Does this e-book edition have notes or an introduction?

According to the information, this is a public-domain e-text released by Project Gutenberg, with no notes or introduction mentioned. Readers who need background material should consult literary histories or drama studies separately.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Müller, Florian Author

Müller, Florian is an author about whom public information is currently limited; his identity, nationality and life are poorly documented, and only one of his works is held in the collection, so his personal background cannot be confirmed. His known representative work is the five-act social tragedy Der Bankerott (meaning "Bankruptcy"). Judging from the title and subtitle, the play draws on social reality and uses drama to portray economic hardship and human conflict, a theme of social criticism common in nineteenth-century German-language literature. Owing to the scarcity of relevant sources, the play's publication history, performance record and later influence cannot be described in detail, and whether the author wrote other works remains to be verified. This note is based solely on the available bibliographic information and offers no speculation; it may be supplemented if further material comes to light.