The Enchained Fantasy

Ferdinand RaimundProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8

Word count: 94K words
Chapters: 10

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.Die gefesselte Phantasie by Ferdinand RaimundAuthor: Raimund, Ferdinand, 1790-1836,Language: German, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Oct 1, 2004

Editor's review

This work is a fantasy-flavored dramatic text by the Austrian playwright Ferdinand Raimund. The original German edition was prepared and released by Project Gutenberg and belongs in the public-domain ebook category. Raimund was an important representative of nineteenth-century Viennese popular theater, and his works often blend fairy-tale, allegorical, and folk-comic elements. The title Die gefesselte Phantasie (Fancy Bound) itself signals the tension between imagination and restraint. The play unfolds its plot through personification and has a clear allegorical character and stage-performance features. As primary material for German-language literary and drama studies, it has documentary value and is suited to understanding the aesthetic tastes and language style of the Biedermeier Viennese stage. Readers should note that this is a text intended for the stage, with dialogue and stage directions coexisting, and that understanding it depends on some knowledge of German and experience reading drama. The electronic edition is convenient for searching and comparative research, but it lacks performance context, so readers must fill in the background themselves. Overall, this is a niche text deserving attention from enthusiasts of theater history and German-language literature rather than a popular leisure read.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Researchers of German literature and theater history who need the primary text for analysis
Intermediate and advanced learners of German who want to encounter nineteenth-century play language
Readers interested in Viennese popular theater and Biedermeier culture
Theater enthusiasts willing to read an allegorical play with stage directions

Not a good fit for

Readers with no German who would struggle with the original dialogue and scenes
General fiction readers seeking light entertainment
Beginners hoping for detailed annotations or interpretive background on performances

Reading tips

Learn about Raimund's life and the Viennese theater background first, then approach the text to lower the barrier to understanding.
Read in segments by act or scene and pay attention to how stage directions work with the dialogue.
Consult chapters on Biedermeier drama in German literary histories and take notes as you read.
If possible, read the dialogue aloud to feel the rhythm and comic effect of 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

Is this book a novel or a play?

It is a dramatic text with character dialogue and stage directions, written for theatrical performance rather than as a narrative novel. Readers need to follow the act and scene structure to understand how the plot advances, which is a different experience from reading fiction.

Can I read this book without any German?

The original is in German and in nineteenth-century dramatic language, so reading it directly without German is very difficult. It is best to have intermediate-to-advanced German reading ability or to use a bilingual edition and literary-historical materials for support.

What are the features of this electronic edition?

This edition was released by Project Gutenberg as a free public-domain ebook, convenient for searching, copying, and scholarly citation. It usually does not include detailed annotations or an introduction, however, so readers need to supplement the background materials themselves.

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

Ferdinand Raimund Author · Austrian · 1790–1836

Ferdinand Raimund (1790–1836) was an Austrian actor and playwright born in Vienna, and a master of the Viennese popular comedy (Posse). He combined folk-comedy traditions with fairy-tale, allegorical and magical elements; his plays often use fantastic plots to mirror ordinary people's desires and weaknesses, with lively language and a strong sense of the stage. His representative works include Der Verschwender, Der Alpenkönig und der Menschenfeind, and Das Mädchen aus der Feenwelt oder, Der Bauer als Millionär, which are still performed in German and Austrian theatres today. The Raimund Theater in Vienna is named after him, showing his influence on German-language theatre history. Public information on his early life and education is limited.