My Readings For German Literature VI November 2016
1. The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse
2. Royal Highness by Thomas Mann
3. A Small Circus by Hans Fallada
4. Rosshalde by Hermann Hesse
5. "Did He Do It" by. Stefan Zweig
6. Journey Into the Past by Stefan Zweig (second reading, no post, posted on in Nov 2015)
7. The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald
8. "The Ballarina and the Body" by Alfred Doblin
9. Confession by Stefan Zweig
10. Schlump by Hans Herbert Grimm
11. "Flower Days" by Robert Walser (1911, no post)
12. "A Summer Novella" by Stefan Zweig
13. "Kleisr in Thunder" by Robert Walser. (3rd reading, no post)
When I first saw the story title, "A Summer Novella" I assumed the work was a novella. It is not and I cannot help but think this might be Zweig having a bit of fun with his readers. Like many of his works, the story is structured as one man telling a story to another. In this case the story is set at a nice hotel. One man relays the events he set in motion when he made up an anonymous love letter, just for a joke, and sent it to a young girl staying at the hotel with her parents. He can see she is shocked and intrigued. He decides to send her more increasingly ardent letters. He watches her reading them in the hotel dining room when her parents are not around. Soon he sees her suriptiously eyeing a dashing young Italian man staying in the hotel. She seems convinced he is her mystery lover.
The man listening to the story tells the narrator he should expand it into a novella.
I found this a clever story.
Mel ü
1 comment:
I must get around to read SZ, sounds like a great writer. Or maybe because I enjoy your reviews.🤓📚
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