Table of Contents

Introduction The Bavarian Stories (1920-1924) Barvan gives up Story on a Ship The Revelation The Foolish Wife The Blind Man A Helping Hand Java Meier The Lance-Sergeant Message in a Bottle A Mean Bastard The Death of Cesare Malatesta The Berlin Stories (1924-1933) The Answer Before the Flood Conversation about the South Seas Letter about a Mastiff Hook to the Chin Müller's Natural Attitude North Sea Shrimps Bad Water A Little Tale of Insurance Four Men and a Poker Game Barbara The Good Lord's Package The Monster The Job Stories Written in Exile (1934-1948) Safety First The Soldier of La Ciotat A Mistake Gaumer and Irk Socrates Wounded The Experiment The Heretic's Coat Lucullus's Trophies The Unseemly Old Lady A Question of Taste The Augsburg Chalk Circle Two Sons Appendix Life Story of the Boxer Samson-Körner Editorial Notes The Principle Collections of Brecht's Short Stories Notes on the Individual Stories Index of Titles in German

Promotional Information

Thirty-seven dazzling short stories from the great 20th-century poet and theatrical innovator Bertolt Brecht.

About the Author

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is acknowledged as one of the great dramatists of the 20th century whose plays, work with the Berliner Ensemble and writing have had a considerable influence on the theatre. His landmark plays include The Threepenny Opera and, while exiled from Germany and living in the USA, such masterpieces as The Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Reviews

Casual wickedness, moral hypocrisy, determined self-interest - such are the familiar residents of Brecht's milieu . . .in this complete collection of his known finished stories . . . Chilling perfection.
*Times Literary Supplement*

Highly anecdotal, humourously accepting of the facts of life, like tales told by a clever seaman in a pub.
*Guardian*

These tales are the least known of Brecht's work, yet they underlie most of his major writings in other fields. Terse, mild-voiced, with piercing detail - a mine for short story addicts.
*Observer*

But whether Brecht is negotiating relationships, providing narrative attesting to a character’s humanity, or offering an anthropological approach to displacement or alienation, there is always a superior literary talent at work. His plots, characterizations, style, and language in these short stories prove Silberman’s point. Among other things, Brecht was a great and engaging storyteller. I’d even go so far as to say that many of the offerings in The Collected Short Stories of Bertolt Brecht are equal to his works for the stage.
*American Theatre*