"A new translation of a famous 1888 novella [...]. This is a marvelous work, effortlessly lifted to eerie supernatural heights. [...] Storm's mastery of the details of dyke-building and bourgeois political intrigue ground it firmly in recognizable reality. There is nothing better in German fiction prior to the work of Thomas Mann."

Correspondence ('The Dykemaster')

"I appreciate the enormous work that has gone into this fine edition and warmly congratulate you on 'The Dykemaster' which I am sure will significantly increase Storm's popularity in the USA and in this country. Translations of the high standard you have achieved are more than ever in demand."

"I am currently reading 'The Dykemaster', enjoying it immensely and astonished at your fine translation. It really is a masterful work of art and clearly undertaken with loving care. [ . . . ] what is so remarkable about 'The Dykemaster' is it truly reads as if it had been written by a native English speaker."

"I had never come across the work of Theodor Storm before and I was particularly impressed (in 'The Dykemaster') by the strong sense of place and the importance it plays in the story. I should be pleased to receive details of any further translations of Storm's works that you may publish."

Reviews ('Hans and Heinz Kirch')

"A warm welcome will be extended to T.S., 'Hans and Heinz Kirch, with Immensee and Journey to a Hallig', trans. Denis Jackson et al., London, Angel, 189 pp. Hans und Heinz Kirch and Eine Halligfahrt are here translated into English for the first time. In an age when universities are increasingly obliged to provide literature courses in translation it has become urgently necessary to augment the number of good translations of 19th-c German texts, and Jackson and his German collaborator have done an outstanding job. The translations of both the prose of Storm's stories, and the inset poems of Immensee are uniformly excellent. They remain admirably close to the surface meaning of Storm's German, yet they also capture very accurately the characteristic rhythms of his language and manage at the same time to read like natural English. A more eloquent refutation of the old charge of 'traduttore traditore' would be hard to find.'

'To his earlier translation of Der Schimmelreiter Jackson has now added -- this time in partnership with a German collaborator -- three more highly successful translations of works by Storm. The translations are all based on the standard critical edition of Storm's works by Karl Ernst Laage and Dieter Lohmeier. The introduction by Jackson provides a brief but informative survey of Storm's life and work and places it in the context of the turbulent politics of the time and the literary tradition of 19th-century German Poetic Realism. Useful maps and 30 pages of excellent explanatory notes aid the understanding of the texts by English speakers unfamiliar with German history and culture. What impresses most of all, however, is the outstanding quality of the translations, which contrive to read like natural English and yet capture beautifully the sense and rhythm of Storm's German.'

Correspondence ('Hans and Heinz Kirch')

"These are superbly sensitive new translations."

Reviews (‘Paul the Puppeteer’ with ‘The Village on the Moor’ & ‘Renate’)

“ ‘Pole Poppenspäler’ in the English Language

Through Denis Jackson's fine and stylistically sensitive translations other readers, besides those competent in the German language, can now read the most acclaimed works of the leading figure of Poetic Realism. And Jackson's translations are equally distinguished by another factor: they contain notes that explain to the reader the distinctive regional and historical aspects of the work. Storm's descriptions of the specific North German landscape and the portrayal of its people are thereby made the more meaningful to a world-wide reading public.”

Correspondence (‘Paul the Puppeteer’ with ‘The Village on the Moor’ and ‘Renate’)

“What a great joy to know that Storm has found such a splendid champion of his works in the English-speaking world!”

“I enjoyed the story of the puppeteers and was really captured by a sense of time and place which the language conjured up beautifully [ . . . ] What a good writer he was and you have achieved a most sensitive and atmospheric translation. It feels as if you just ‘caught it’ before it was lost in time!”

Juliet Rogers. Movingstage Marionette Company, London
(Letter to translator. 26 April 2004)

Professor David Artiss, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
(E-Mail to translator 25 April 2004)