Emil and the Detectives in Never too Late to Read Classics

Oct 30, 2016 Manybooks rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens-literature, classics, mysteries, book-reviews, friendship, translations, german-literature, erich-kastner

Please do note that Emil's exploits, that the story itself, in its German original, while never a personal favourite, is and will always remain a solid three star read for me (enjoyable, but also not spectacular). And yes, the above one star rating is simply because the new 2007 translation by W. Martin absolutely and totally leaves so very much to be desired (especially for someone such as I who likes her translations as close to the original as possible and not updated or altered all that much ...more

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Nov 11, 2016 Manybooks rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-reviews, childrens-literature, friendship, mysteries, erich-kastner

First published in 1929, Erich Kästner's Emil und die Detektive (Emil and the Detectives) especially and brilliantly sparkles and glows with its sense of time and place, with its urban realism, its palpably authentic and genuine representation and description of Berlin (the capital city of the Germany of the Weimar Republic, a lively and throbbing modern metropolis, and not some vague environs set in either a magical present or a distant historical past).

Also and for me personally, reading abou First published in 1929, Erich Kästner's Emil und die Detektive (Emil and the Detectives) especially and brilliantly sparkles and glows with its sense of time and place, with its urban realism, its palpably authentic and genuine representation and description of Berlin (the capital city of the Germany of the Weimar Republic, a lively and throbbing modern metropolis, and not some vague environs set in either a magical present or a distant historical past).

Also and for me personally, reading about Emil's adventures and exploits in Berlin, more than forty years later in 1975 (when I was nine years old, approximately a year before we immigrated from what was then West Germany to Canada), with the Berlin Wall at that time still firmly in place and East Berlin, like all of East Germany, for all intents and purposes cut off from West Germany, Emil und die Detektive was basically the only way for me to even remotely be able to experience the at that time still former capital of Germany (as from 1949 until reunification, while East Berlin remained the capital of East Germany, the capital of West Germany was Bonn), since unless one had family members in the East, it was often very difficult for many if not most West Germans to even obtain permission from East Germany to cross over, to visit (and neither did we have relatives in East Germany nor did my parents desire to frequent East Germany as that, according to them, would have been catering to Erich Honecker and the Soviet Union, and therefore, even the idea of perhaps visiting West Berlin was never remotely entertained or considered).

Now aside from the above mentioned and appreciated immediacy, the both harsh and at times also entertaining, delightful reality of urban existence, Emil und die Detektive is primarily a novel of not only adventure and friendship, but essentially, a glorification of children and their abilities, their hidden and not so hidden strengths and talents. Emil and his new friends tracking and then apprehending the scoundrel who had robbed Emil of his money clearly and succinctly demonstrates to ALL (including parents, including adults) that the young are NOT (and should never be) mere bastions of inactivity and quietude (to be seen but not heard, to be sitting silently and attentively at school, at church or at home), but that children can do, that if they join forces and work together, they can (at least within the confines of this story) even take the job of the police, of adult detectives (and that there is safety and comfort in numbers, that as a team, collectively, much can be accomplished). But that being said, and even though I do realise that from all of Erich Kästner's children's novels, Emil und die Detektive is definitely still his most famous and well known (especially in North America and Great Britain, especially in translation), there are some rather major and unfortunate issues with datedness and stratified gender roles present, as Emil's female cousin Pony Hütchen, while clearly represented in many ways as both the most imaginative and even the most courageous of the children, unfortunately also seems to be primarily a maternal representative, a motherly type whose role is first and foremost that of a caregiver (and it is thus Emil and the boys of the group who later earn all or at least most of the accolades, who are feted as having apprehended the thief).

I do very well realise that Emil und die Detektive was penned, was published in the 1920s and that for its time (for 1929), both the story itself and the featured characters are actually quite if not very avant-garde (even with regard to Pony Hütchen, who while she might indeed languish somewhat as a typical maternal caregiver like entity, is at least permitted, is at least allowed freedom and vitality, is not simply confined to the house or to a finishing school, sewing or learning how to "be a lady"). It is just that for me, I find it somewhat frustrating that even though many of Erich Kästner's later novels for children often portray considerably less gender stratification (and even actual criticism of the latter), they are often not nearly as familiar to especially English language readers. For while the English language translations of Emil und die Detektive (Emil and the Detectives) are considered and should always be considered a classic (and are easily available and often in current print), many of his later children's novels are not nearly as well known in English translation, which is truly unfortunate, as I have (for example) personally always enjoyed Kästner's Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (The Flying Classroom) and Das doppelte Lottchen (Lottie and Lisa) much more than Emil und die Detektive (precisely due to the fact that there is not only less obvious gender stratification shown but that both it and negative attitudes towards women face considerable authorial condemnation). Still, Emil und die Detektive remains highly recommended, and is perhaps a good enough place to start (especially if one desires to read Erich Kästner's children's writing academically, sociologically and/or historically). ...more

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Nov 23, 2009 Manybooks rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens-literature, classics, mysteries, book-reviews, friendship, german-literature, translations, erich-kastner

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES (BASED ON THE GERMAN ORIGINAL)

First published in 1929, Erich Kästner's Emil und die Detektive (Emil and the Detectives in English translations) especially and brilliantly sparkles and glows with its sense of time and place, with its urban realism, its palpably authentic and genuine representation and description of Berlin (the capital city of the Germany of the Weimar Republic, a lively and throbbing modern metropolis, and not some vague environs set i ...more

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Jan 04, 2015 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: children-ya, fiction-20th-century, read-2015, audio-books, german-literature

From BBC radio 4 - Saturday Drama:
Dramatisation by Katie Hims of the comic children's detective novel by Erich Kaestner.

Country boy Emil Tischbein, up from Neustadt for the first time, enlists the aid of hundreds of Berlin street boys to help him catch a thief. ...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Eva Siagian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

saya tidak memerlukan waktu banyak untuk membaca buku ini namun saya menikmati bacaan ini seakan everlasting.. perhaps, it is.

buku bagus untuk anak dengan imajinasi anak yang lari kesana kemari tapi tetap mengindahkan kehalusan bahasa dan kesederhanaan imajinasi. ciri khas imajinasi anak laki-laki. bandingkan dengan kakak beradik berhati singa, sama2 penulisan imajinasi liar anak, namun dalam bentuk yang lebih rumit dengan efek cukup negatif dan gaya bahasa yang lebih kasar.

seperti penulis buku ...more

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