Debit and Credit

Debit and Credit, by Gustav
Freytag

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Title: Debit and Credit Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag
Author: Gustav Freytag
Translator: 'L. C. C.'
Release Date: November 11, 2006 [EBook #19754]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AND CREDIT
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DEBIT AND CREDIT.
Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag,
BY L.C.C.
WITH A PREFACE,
BY CHRISTIAN CHARLES JOSIAS BUNSEN,
D.D., D.C.L., D.PH.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1858.

LETTER FROM CHEVALIER BUNSEN.
CHARLOTTENBERG, NEAR HEIDELBERG, 10th October, 1857.
DEAR SIR,--It is now about five months since you expressed to me a
wish that I might be induced to imbody, in a few pages, my views on
the peculiar interest I attached--as you had been informed by a common
friend--to the most popular German novel of the age, Gustav Freytag's
Soll und Haben. I confess I was at first startled by your proposal. It is
true that, although I have not the honor of knowing the author
personally, his book inspired me with uncommon interest when I read it

soon after its appearance in 1855, and I did not hesitate to recommend
translation into English, as I had, in London, recommended that of the
Life of Perthes, since so successfully translated and edited under your
auspices. I also admit that I thought, and continue to think, the English
public at large would the better appreciate, not only the merits, but also
the importance of the work, if they were informed of the bearing that it
has upon the reality of things on the Continent; for, although Soll und
Haben is a work altogether of fiction, and not what is called a book of
tendency, political or social, it exhibits, nevertheless, more strikingly
than any other I know, some highly important social facts, which are
more generally felt than understood. It reveals a state of the relations of
the higher and of the middle classes of society, in the eastern provinces
of Prussia and the adjacent German and Slavonic countries, which are
evidently connected with a general social movement proceeding from
irresistible realities, and, in the main, independent of local
circumstances and of political events. A few explanatory words might
certainly assist the English reader in appreciating the truth and
impartiality of the picture of reality exhibited in this novel, and thus
considerably enhance the enjoyment of its poetical beauties, which
speak for themselves.
At the same time, I thought that many other persons might explain this
much better than I, who am besides, and have been ever since I left
England, exclusively engaged in studies and compositions of a different
character. As, however, you thought the English public would like to
read what I might have to say on the subject, and that some
observations on the book in general, and on the circumstances alluded
to in particular, would prove a good means of introducing the author
and his work to your countrymen, I gladly engaged to employ a time of
recreation in one of our German baths in writing a few pages on the
subject, to be ready by the 1st of August. I was the more encouraged to
do so when, early in July, you communicated to me the proof-sheets of
the first volume of a translation, which I found not only to be faithful in
an eminent degree, but also to rival successfully the spirited tone and
classical style for which the German original is justly and universally
admired.

I began, accordingly, on the 15th July, to write the Introductory
Remarks desired by you, when circumstances occurred over which I
had no control, and neither leisure nor strength could be found for a
literary composition.
Now that I have regained both, I have thought it advisable to let you
have the best I can offer you in the shortest time possible, and therefore
send you a short Memoir on the subject, written in German, placing it
wholly at your disposal, and leaving it entirely to you to give it either in
part or in its totality to the English public, as may seem best adapted to
the occasion.
I shall be glad to hear of the success of your Translation, and remain,
with sincere consideration,
Dear