Class Reunion
by Franz Werfel
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1929. Werfel, Czech-born poet, playwright, and novelist, whose central themes were religious faith, heroism, and human brotherhood. Class Reunion begins: The examining magistrate, Dr. Ernst Sebastian, extinguished his half-smoked cigar. It was his custom not to smoke during office hours, and there was still one case to be heard. It was nearly six o'clock and the sun's rays struck more and more obliquely across the examination-chair, which hulked in front of his writing-table like a stricken show more man. Sebastian was anxious to hasten matters. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. show lessTags
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There doesn't seem to be a specific name for that category of stories in which adult characters are confronted with the consequences of hateful things they did in adolescence, but there's a lot of that sort of thing about. Maybe writers are disproportionally drawn from the ranks of former school bullies with guilty consciences; more likely they are all former victims of bullying indulging in a bit of wishful thinking...
This is certainly one of those, as Werfel's subtitle confirms: on the afternoon before the 25-year reunion of the class of 1902, examining magistrate Dr Ernst Sebastian is made to realise that it could well have been his own selfish and irresponsible actions as a schoolboy that started his friend Adler on the path that show more led to him being arrested on suspicion of murdering a prostitute.
Needless to say, it isn't quite as simple as that, Werfel introduces a few ironic twists into the story, but what this is really about is the unravelling of the flimsy structure on which the self-satisfied, pompous Sebastian has built his life. Sebastian has got away with all his failings because he is from a rich, powerful, establishment family; Adler has been unable to realise his early promise because his borderline status as a poor, Jewish boy in a middle-class Catholic school makes him the automatic scapegoat for everything. show less
This is certainly one of those, as Werfel's subtitle confirms: on the afternoon before the 25-year reunion of the class of 1902, examining magistrate Dr Ernst Sebastian is made to realise that it could well have been his own selfish and irresponsible actions as a schoolboy that started his friend Adler on the path that show more led to him being arrested on suspicion of murdering a prostitute.
Needless to say, it isn't quite as simple as that, Werfel introduces a few ironic twists into the story, but what this is really about is the unravelling of the flimsy structure on which the self-satisfied, pompous Sebastian has built his life. Sebastian has got away with all his failings because he is from a rich, powerful, establishment family; Adler has been unable to realise his early promise because his borderline status as a poor, Jewish boy in a middle-class Catholic school makes him the automatic scapegoat for everything. show less
262. Class Reunion, by Franz Werfel (read 18 June 1946) On June 18, 1946, I wrote: "Read Werfel's 'Class Reunion' today. Certainly didn't seem like Werfel."
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Author Information
Born in Prague of Jewish parents, Werfel served in World War I, then lived and wrote in Vienna until driven out by the Nazi occupation of Austria. And the Bridge Was Love: Memories of a Lifetime, by his wife, Alma Werfel, in collaboration with E. B. Ashton, is a deeply personal autobiography of a remarkable life in Vienna by the woman who was also show more married to the composer-conductor Mahler and the architect Gropius. Werfel escaped to the United States after the fall of France in 1940, where he won international recognition for his fiction. The most popular of Werfel's works was the novel The Song of Bernadette (1942), recounting the miraculous vision of the Virgin Mary granted to the young girl who founded Lourdes. Werfel said he wrote the story in honor of his "miraculous" escape from the Nazis but neither affirmed nor denied the miracle at Lourdes. Werfel also wrote lyrical poetry and drama. His comedy Jacobowsky and the Colonel (1944) was successfully produced in New York in 1944. In 1967 the Hamburg Opera presented Giselher Klebe's operatic version of the play at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Belongs to Publisher Series
Bibliothek des 20. Jahrhunderts (Dt. Bücherbund) (Werfel, Franz)
Fischer Taschenbuch (1893 & 9455)
Mirmanda (221)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Class Reunion
- Original title
- Der Abituriententag : Geschichte einer Jugendschuld
- Alternate titles*
- De reünie : het verhaal van een jeugdzonde
- Original publication date
- 1928 (Duits) (Duits); 1990 (Nederlands) (Nederlands)
- First words*
- Der Untersuchungsrichter Landesgerichtsrat Doktor Ernst Sebastian tötete die erst halbgenossene Zigarre.
- Original language*
- Duits
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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