Children Busch, Wilhelm: Max & Moritz / Max & Maurice (De,En,color illus). v1. 10 Jun 2019

[GrannyGrump]

Max und Moritz (German)
Written and illustrated by Wilhelm Busch (1832–1908)
Max and Maurice (English)
Translation by Charles T. Brooks (1813–1883)

Max und Moritz was first published in 1865; C. T. Brooks’ translation in 1871. The text and illustrations of this book are in the public domain worldwide.


This highly inventive, blackly humorous tale, told entirely in rhymed couplets, relates how bad boys Max and Moritz terrorize their small village with seven “pranks.” The rascals eventually come to a bad end, and nobody in the village is sorry.

Busch published a number of illustrated, rhymed stories in the course of his career, but this was the most successful and enduring. The tale of the terrible duo has become a proud part of the culture in German-speaking countries, and even today parents read this to their not-yet-literate children. In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, a certain familiarity with the story and its rhymes is still presumed, and it is often referenced in mass communication. The two grinning faces are synonymous with mischief, and appear iconically in advertising and even graffiti.

By 1997 more than 281 dialect and language translations had been produced. Max and Moritz are noted as forerunners to the modern comic strip: in particular, the long-running twentieth-century American strip, The Katzenjammer Kids, was inspired by Busch’s story and characters.

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Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch (15 April 1832 – 9 January 1908) was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published comic illustrated cautionary tales from 1859, achieving his most notable works in the 1870s. He drew on contemporary parochial and city life, satirizing Catholicism, Philistinism, strict religious morality, and bigotry. His comic text was colourful and entertaining, using onomatopoeia, neologisms, and other figures of speech. Busch became a source of inspiration for future generations of comic artists, and remains one of the most influential poets and artists in Western Europe.

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This compilation was created in collaboration with Doitsu, to whom many thanks!
Embedded font for titling; punctuation and diacritics formatted. Other source and editing information is available inside the book.

I will note here that I colored the line drawings, so please do let me know if you find any problems with the colors.

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So, give this a read, and feed your inner rascal!

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