Indian Summer

It pains me to have to admit that I simply could not finish this nearly 500-page masterwork by one of my favorite authors. I had read that it is ponderous, slow-moving, and dull but I persevered despite finding it to be all of those things for two reasons: the writing (in what seems to be a very good translation—the only one available in English) is simple and straightforward and it is, after all, widely acknowledged to be his great novel. Although I am not sure that I would consider Nietszche a great literary critic, that philosopher considered this (along with Gottfried Keller’s Green Henry, which I coincidentally read several years ago) to be one of two greatest works of the 19th century: “it is the only German book after show more Goethe that has any magic for me.” The book is a classic bildungsroman, the education and maturing of the protagonist. But unlike most such works, Indian Summer is descriptive in the extreme; there is little conflict, few hard choices…there is, in other words, scant evidence of the protagonist’s true maturation, of his real development into his own person. Instead, the book is almost exclusively observation, discussion, and painstaking consideration of everything around him…in extensive, endless, excruciating detail. I expect—and hope—to return to it some day, but it is simply too tedious to continue, I am sad to say. show less

Einmal in der Insel-Gesamtausgabe, Bd.2 von 3;
einmal aus dem Bestand von Otto Bansa, nur 2,3 cm dick

I found this book at home, and I choose it for its cover. It was summer, I was on holiday, and I hoped to have some time to read. After the first pages, I became addicted to Stifter's style, to his writing rythm. Very long and slow story. I followed the main character in his travel outside- inside himself. Unfortunately, i reached the end of the book, and my pleasure to read it had an end too. ..

Concebido como una novela de aprendizaje, que tiene su antecedente en Goethe y su Wilhelm Meister, Stifter publicó Verano tardío en el año 1857. Narra la educación vital de un joven del que nunca conocemos su nombre en el círculo de la familia del barón Von Risach, un entorno sencillo pero culto, en una casa rodeada por las montañas de Bohemia y un jardín de rosas como ventana al mundo. Lecturas en el gabinete, pequeñas veladas llenas de arte y música, conversaciones científicas y mundanas…; la inmensidad de la naturaleza, la gentileza del mundo rural y la profundidad de unas relaciones que hacen que el joven empiece un viaje sin final hacia el conocimiento de sí mismo.