Wilhelm Raabe's «Der Hungerpastor» and Charles Dickens's «David Copperfield»: Intertextuality of Two Bildungsromane

By Peter O. Arnds

Der Hungerpastor (1864-65) is Wilhelm Raabe's most popular novel. This monograph shows how Raabe borrowed much of the plot and characters from Charles Dickens's best-selling David Copperfield (1849-50). By providing the reasons why Raabe borrowed from Dickens, this study goes far beyond the existing research on the parallels between these two Bildungsromane. A comparison of the heroes, their Jewish antagonists and a number of female characters demonstrates the extent of Raabe's indebtedness to Dickens. The intertextuality ranges from direct verbal echoes to a mere use of Dickens's ideas upon which Raabe builds a novel distinctly his own.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0820433217
• ISBN13: 9780820433219
• Release Date: March 1997
• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publi
• Length: 191 Pages