Letter: Conrad and the Polish laureates
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir: I. I. Magdalen (16 October) supports an argument that 'ambiguity pervades Polish writing' by referring to E. T. A. Hoffmann's Maerchen ('the word derives from 'mark', the 'marches', the borderlines, which are always ambiguous'). The derivation is false. Hoffmann did indeed write Maerchen, 'fairy tales' in English. The word is a diminutive form of Middle High German maere, 'news, tale'. Critic hit by philology?
Yours sincerely,
JOHN MORRALL
Durham
17 October
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