Rings of Glass

This is a wonderful book, especially for lovers of Hermann Hesse. As a matter of fact, Hesse read Die gläsernen Ringe. Eine Erzählung by Luise Rinser and liked it. It was published in 1941.

That year of publication, 1941, is of course very significant. It was published two years before Hesse published his opus magnum Das Glasperlenspiel (1943) in English known as The Glass Bead Game. What is interesting is that the title of the book by Rinser, Die gläsernen Ringe also refers to the water of the fountain in the courtyard of a monastery / convent in terms of "glass" and a certain playful element, which led to some deeper insight.

In the early 1940s Hermann Hesse was a writer in the late days of his career, while Luise Rinser just stood show more at the beginning of hers. Die gläsernen Ringe was her first book publication. From the middle of the 1930s many German writers turned to writing about pastoral themes, to avoid any trouble with Nazi censorship.

Die gläsernen Ringe tells the story of a girl's youth, the happy time she spent in a countryside village, after her mother takes her there away from the big city. The second part of the book tells about the agony of being a pupil at a Catholic convent all girls school, and her loneliness there, and the happiness and maturation, both physically and spiritually, on visits to the village during school holidays. There are gorgeous and rich descriptions of botany and the kind of pastoral village life, which is now a really bygone era. The book is strongly reminiscent of Hermann Hesse's early work, such as Unterm Rad, in English published as Beneath the Wheel.

After the war, Luise Rinser developed into an important author in Germany, who published many works of fiction and autobiographical non-fiction between 1946 and 1999. However, in most recent criticism, following the publication of her biography in early 2011, she has been accused of being a much greater supporter of the Nazi movement and politics than she admitted or even lied about. Opportunism is the least of accusations.

As with so many authors in different countries, the art of writing cannot be seen separate from the substrate it grows on. Not all writers were able to move to Switzerland. The period from 1933 leading up to 1941 must have been a grim period, with dark clouds blocking the sun, throwing long shadows ahead. Young writers of that period grew up reading Hermann Hesse whose early works dating from the period between 1903 to 1930 were considered to belong to the greatest and most influential of his time. Demian, published in 1919 reached cult status, and like many of his other books inspired young people of that time.

If read out of that political context, Die gläsernen Ringe is a wonderful and serene tale, not as light as the work by Hesse, but with the same grace and attention for detail, Hesse writing about the monastery school of Maulbronn and the rustic village of Calw, and Rinser in Landsberg am Lech in southwest Bavaria. show less

Ein Mädchen wächst in den Jahren des 1. Weltkrieges in Süddeutschland auf, doch die Jahre im ländlichen Kloster, von ihrem Großoheim geleitet, in dem die Mutter mit ihr Zuflucht nimmt, erscheinen ihr später wie ein Paradies. Sie öffnet sich des Seienden des Anderen: den Blüten, den Tieren, den Menschen, alle so ganz anders und doch vertraut.
Die Begegnungen: die Enttäuschung über den wiederauftauchenden aber fremd bleibenden Vater, die Spannungen mit der Mutter, die Faszinationen des wilden Waldjungen, des Großvaters, der aus China zurückkehrt und ihr geheimnisvolle Geschenke gibt, ... werden in einer stillen, behutsamen Sprache geschildert. Eine Sprache, die sanft und auch stark und wild ist. (I-15)