Böcker av Abigail Dunn

Swallow the Toad is a light and fast read which will amuse all those who know a little about the German mindset. In her eleven years living and working in Germany, Abigail takes us on a journey to a place full of chaos, confusion and contradictions and discovers the deep chasm that exists between the stereotypical view of Germany and the reality.At a time when Europe is wondering about the origins and features of the struggling German economy which has once again labelled this nation as the "sick man of Europe", these pages offer a kind of psychological and sociological insight arising from personal and day-to-day experiences.Anyone planning to move to the "country of sausages and sauerkraut" can get some useful tips and advice, knowing that if they go ahead they will have to frequently 'swallow the toad'.

'Was ist eine Witwe mehr als ... ein aufgewarmtes Essen?' According to politician and statesman Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel (1741-1796), widows were superfluous beings and second-hand goods, but they were also perceived by theologians and moralists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a threat due to their sexual experience and supposedly ungovernable lust. This book analyses the overwhelmingly negative portrayal of the widow in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German fiction. Male writers in the works discussed repeat the theory that, once deprived of their husbands, widows become sexually voracious. Indeed, the widow is often presented as a dangerous sexual predator who is prone to violence. Female authors, however, highlight the invisibility of the widow and portray her as a figure alienated from society and her family because she has internalized the ideas propounded by Hippel. The widow is depicted throughout as a figure to be at best re-educated and at worst to be feared and guarded against.