Robert Walser Kritische Ausgabe sämtlicher Drucke und Manuskripte... / Der Gehülfe

Robert Walser's second novel "The Assistant" was published in 1908 by the Bruno Cassirer publishing house in Berlin, after "The Tanner Siblings" had already appeared in 1907. The Critical Robert Walser Edition (KWA) documents for the first time the text status of the first edition of the novel. Christian Morgenstern, the editor of the publishing house, expressed a positive opinion about the work: "I like Walser very much. […] It is somewhat broadly woven, but the patterns repeatedly astonish with their delicacy. An astonishing discipline and maturity artistically elevate it far above its predecessors."

The genesis and textual history of the novel holds some mysteries. Morgenstern received a new manuscript from Walser in November 1906, before the publication of "The Tanner Siblings," which is referred to in correspondence as "The Assistant," but it must have differed significantly in content from the present novel. Apparently, two manuscripts were completed within a year, of which only one was published.

The afterword of the KWA provides excerpts of this only partially reconstructable genesis of "The Assistant" along with the documents received. An overview of the early reception gives insight into the partly controversial reviews and the broad echo of criticism regarding Robert Walser's second published novel.

In the philological apparatus of the edition, the text differences between the book edition and the manuscript (KWA IV 2) are presented. The manuscript, which is facsimiled and diplomatically transcribed in KWA IV.2, is the only surviving novel manuscript besides that of "The Tanner Siblings." The creation of the novel seems to have proceeded smoothly and quickly, as suggested by Walser's own statements to Carl Seelig and in a later prose piece, where the narrator describes that "in a rather short time a novel springs forth from the pen." Compared to the first novel, the manuscript also shows significantly fewer signs of editing.