The wounderchild

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The child prodigy is a story by Thomas Mann , which was published on December 25, 1903 as a Christmas supplement to the Neue Freie Presse magazine and published in 1914 by S. Fischer Verlag. It can be understood as a humorous sequel to the melancholy artist novella Tonio Kröger (1903). On April 11, 1910, Thomas Mann wrote to Ernst Bertram : " I only note that among my little things, ´The child prodigy´ is personally my favorite ".

The eight-year-old virtuoso
Loris Margaritis in Munich

According to Peter Sprengel , a piano concerto by eight-year-old Loris Margaritis provided the material for the short story. Katia Mann reports: “Years later, his [ie Margaritis'] widow wrote to Erika [ie Erika Mann ] that he knew the story and was very amused about it, and she also sent her a photograph of the child prodigy in clothes who describes him the novella. "

action

It describes the appearance of an eight-year-old piano virtuoso, then a scene in the visitors' cloakroom and then another outside on the street. Nothing more happens. Instead, ironically impaling various vanities, it reveals what is going on in the minds of artists and concert-goers.

His appearance gives the child prodigy Bibi Saccellaphylaccas indescribable pleasure, tingling happiness, a secret shower of joy. It sits elevated on the stage in front of its grand piano, "alone and chosen over a blurry crowd, which has only a dull, difficult-to-move soul, on which it is supposed to have an effect with its individual and prominent soul" . The little virtuoso despises his audience. It only makes sense for the sensational pieces in its program. Musical subtleties - he only plays his own compositions - does not capture it. His artistic conceit goes so far that when he answers the friendly questions that “a small, wrinkled, shriveled old princess” asks him after the concert, he quietly thinks: “Oh, you stupid old princess” , turns around and walks away .

An old gentleman is touched "by this three- cheese high" who shows him " wonderful things " . “But you have to remember that it comes from above. God distributes his gifts, there is nothing to be done […]. It's something like with the baby Jesus. ” At the same time, it sounds like a pedophile. “He doesn't dare to think: How cute that is! 'Sweet' would be embarrassing for a sturdy old man. But he feels it! He still feels it! ” - A businessman calculates the concert organizer's profit, balancing income and costs. - A piano teacher quietly criticizes the little artist's hand position. - To her surprise, a young girl senses that it is passion that is expressed in the game, and asks herself confused whether there can be passion in a child, i.e. without sensual desire. - An officer thinks: “You are something, and I am something, everyone in his own way!” . As a simple head, he is exposed with the following sentence: "Otherwise he pulls the heels together and pays the child prodigy the respect he pays to all the powers that be."

A critic is also among the audience, sitting in his open space, in a sheared suit, and thinks: “Look at him, that fool! As an individual he still has an end to growing, but as a type he is completely finished, as an artist type. He has in him the artist's highness and his indignity, his charlatanism and his holy spark, his contempt and his secret intoxication. ”He smugly claims that he would have become an artist himself if he “ did not see it all so clearly ” .

In the cloakroom, a handsome young man cannot part with the sight of himself in the mirror. When he enters the street, he falls into a little nigger dance on the hard, frozen snow because it's so cold. This is observed by an “uncoated girl” who is accompanied by a “gloomy youth” . “A child,” she thinks, “a lovely child. There was a venerable one in there . And out loud she says: "We are all child prodigies, we creators" .

"What's that! A kind of Pythia , it seems to me, ” thinks the “ old gentleman ” who hears it in passing. He not only has a feeling for religious appearances - the child prodigy reminded him of the baby Jesus - but can also explain life in mythological images.

Prints

As the title story in the novella volume from 1914
  • First printing: As a Christmas supplement in: Neue Freie Presse on December 25, 1903
  • The wounderchild. Novellas by Thomas Mann. S. Fischer, Berlin 1914, pp. 7-25
  • Thomas Mann: Collected Works. Novellas. 1st volume. Fischer, Berlin 1922
  • Victor Polzer, ed .: The world in short stories. A selection for the youth. Herz, Vienna 1925, pp. 3–17
  • Thomas Mann: Selected stories . Bermann-Fischer, Stockholm 1948. 6. – 12. Edition, thin print, linen (Stockholm Complete Edition). Contents: Little Mr Friedemann / Disappointment / Tristan / Tobias Mindernickel / Tonio Kröger / The way to the cemetery / Mr and dog / The wardrobe / Confessions of the impostor Felix Krull / Death in Venice / With the prophet / Disorder and early suffering / Difficult hour / Mario and the magician / The child prodigy / The swapped heads / The law.
  • Thomas Mann: All the stories. S. Fischer Frankfurt 1963. Linen, red back label with gold writing. Vision, Fallen, The Will to Happiness, Disappointment, Death, Little Mr. Friedemann, The Bajazzo, Tobias Mindernickel, The Wardrobe, Revenge, Luischen, The Way to the Cemetery, Gladius Dei, Tristan, The Hungry, Tonio Kröger, The Child Prodigy , Fortune, With the Prophet, Difficult Hour, Wälsungenblut, Anecdote, The railway accident, How Jappe and Do Escobar fought, Death in Venice, Lord and dog, Disorder and early suffering, Mario and the magician, The exchanged heads, The law , The Deceived, The Boy Enoch (fragment).
  • Thomas Mann: The stories. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag 1986, pp. 390–400

Secondary literature

  • Peter Sprengel: History of German-Language Literature 1900–1918. S. 348, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-52178-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Katia Mann: "My unwritten memoirs", Frankfurt a. M. 1976, p. 134.
  2. ^ Before the First World War, high military officials were among the top of society.

Web links

Wikiversity: The Child Prodigy. Novellas.  - course materials