Adalbert Stifter (1805–1868)

I’d hardly call Stifter or his stories “obscurities,” but the word certainly fits the other two others here, both writing from the German-speaking borderlands of Europe, one from what is now Latvia and the other from what is now the Czech Republic (sorry, I just can’t use its new name; it sounds like a drug or a toy or…I don’t know what). The stories, including Stifter’s, are all ably done, enjoyable to read, but that’s as far as I’ll go. My time was definitely not wasted, but I also won't go to great lengths to see the other two writers out, though their personal stories are interesting. All three stories qualify as obscurities, I’m sorry to say. Even Stifter’s—and I am a big fan of his writing. This particular story, though, is extraordinarily, almost unforgiveably, slow. Some 95% of the story is setup to a very quick and thoroughly predictable end. (Final note: this was apparently a labor of love by the translators who dedicate the work to a professor. They do not identify themselves, their relationship to the dedicatee, or their qualifications. While their German may be fluent and even excellent, their translations are too often a little awkward or worse. This volume would have benefitted from a good editor--or someone who read the translations and pointed out the infelicities to them before they published it.)… (more)

I was surprised more than once while reading this novella by Adalbert Stifter. Firstly, I had to look up the meaning of the word "Hagestolz". Stifter is often praised for his exuberant descriptions of the natural scenery, and together with the cover picture on my edition I thought is would refer to a magnificent old tree. In a way it does, although this has nothing to do with the etymology of the word, as the word Hagestolz in German means the bachelor.

With that knowledge, the opening sentence almost gives away the story. The first part of the story feels very much like an allegory. The second part, when the young man visits his uncle, who lives in a walled up monastery on an island, has significant Gothic overtones, and at this stage I started wondering whether perhaps the story was a dream vision, and whether the events were really happening to Victor not. While, in fact, the story is very straight forward, the style and story elements make it intriguing and exciting.

The story does of course have a clear message, it is morally didactive from the start. Despite the fact that it was written in the mid-Nineteenth century, it has a medieval feel to it, and in a sense it is an epithalamium in prose.

Und wenn ein uralter Mann auf dem Hügel seiner Thaten steht, was nützt es ihm, wenn er kein Dasein geschaffen hat, das nach ihm noch dauert?

There are numerous editions of classic literature, but I must say this series of DTV is among the more original. The edition is issued in the "Bibliothek der Erstausgaben" (Library of First Editions). Although published without extensive introduction, and only a small glossary, the book throughout has line numbers and the page breaks of the original (historical first) edition are indicated by "page numbers" in square brackets in the text.… (more)