# Is "The Reader (Der Vorleser)" by Bernhard Schlink a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Reader (Der Vorleser) by Bernhard Schlink (Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich, 1995) is identified by: German true first: Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich, 1995, hardcover in original cloth (olive-green linen recorded) with the colour-illustrated original jacket reproducing a detail of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 'Nollendorfplatz' (1912); ISBN 3-257-06065-3, 206 pp. Census claim confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- German true first: Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich, 1995, hardcover in original cloth (olive-green linen recorded) with the colour-illustrated original jacket reproducing a detail of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 'Nollendorfplatz'
- ISBN 3-257-06065-3, 206 pp
- The copyright page reads 'Copyright (c) 1995 Diogenes Verlag AG Zurich' and states the Auflage, and it is the stated Auflage — not the 1995 date — that identifies the impression: further Auflagen were printed within 1995 itself (a signed 'Vierte Auflage, im Jahr der Erstausgabe' hardcover is recorded in the trade), so a 1995 title page alone proves nothing
- Diogenes also prints a slash-separated code on the copyright page (e.g
- 500/02/8/33 on a 2002 printing of the 33rd Auflage), in which the final group is the impression number; a first printing must show the first Auflage
- First English (Carol Brown Janeway's translation): Pantheon Books, New York, 1997, ISBN 0-679-44269-0, 218 pp., black boards with white spine lettering; the first printing has 'First American Edition' stated on the copyright page together with a full number line to 1 (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1), in a priced jacket with the price present at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Bernhard Schlink |
| Publisher | Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich |
| Year | 1995 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | German true first: Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich, 1995, hardcover in original cloth (olive-green linen recorded) with the colour-illustrated… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
German true first: Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich, 1995, hardcover in original cloth (olive-green linen recorded) with the colour-illustrated original jacket reproducing a detail of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 'Nollendorfplatz' (1912); ISBN 3-257-06065-3, 206 pp. The copyright page reads 'Copyright (c) 1995 Diogenes Verlag AG Zurich' and states the Auflage, and it is the stated Auflage — not the 1995 date — that identifies the impression: further Auflagen were printed within 1995 itself (a signed 'Vierte Auflage, im Jahr der Erstausgabe' hardcover is recorded in the trade), so a 1995 title page alone proves nothing. Diogenes also prints a slash-separated code on the copyright page (e.g. 500/02/8/33 on a 2002 printing of the 33rd Auflage), in which the final group is the impression number; a first printing must show the first Auflage. First English (Carol Brown Janeway's translation): Pantheon Books, New York, 1997, ISBN 0-679-44269-0, 218 pp., black boards with white spine lettering; the first printing has 'First American Edition' stated on the copyright page together with a full number line to 1 (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1), in a priced jacket with the price present at the flap. A softcover Advance Reading Copy of the Pantheon edition precedes the trade issue. First UK: Phoenix House, London, 1997, ISBN 1-86159-063-6, 216 pp., original blue/green cloth boards with gilt spine lettering, first impression, unclipped jacket.

## Is this the true first?
Census claim confirmed. The German edition is the true first — Der Vorleser, Diogenes Verlag, Zurich, 1995 — and any English 'first edition' is a translation two years later. Both 1997 English editions use Carol Brown Janeway's translation and both are collected: Pantheon Books, New York, is the first American edition and is generally accorded precedence within 1997, with Phoenix House, London, the first UK edition. Priority between the two is a publication-date question rather than a textual one; the honest formulation is 'first American' or 'first UK', not an unqualified 'first in English'.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The dominant trap is not a book club but a paperback: the ubiquitous Diogenes Taschenbuch, ISBN 3-257-22953-4, is a 1997 reprint whose own colophon states 'Die Erstausgabe erschien 1995 im Diogenes Verlag' — it is not the first edition, and copies of it are frequently offered as though the 1995 copyright line made them one. In the US, the February 1999 Oprah's Book Club selection generated later Pantheon printings and jackets bearing the Oprah's Book Club logo; a logo on the jacket front rules out a 1997 first printing outright, and book-club hardcovers of the Pantheon edition circulate alongside them. Vintage International paperbacks (1999 onward) are reprints.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Reader (Der Vorleser)* by Bernhard Schlink a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-reader-der-vorleser
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.