Granite (donor)
Granite is a story by Adalbert Stifter from the Bunte Steine collection (1853). The protagonist's grandfather tells the protagonist about the unsuccessful escape of a bad luck family and the rescue of two children while walking. It is the revised version of the story Die Pechbrenner published in 1848 .
content
The narrator remembers an event from his childhood in the Bohemian town of Oberplan , the birthplace of Stifter: A traveling pitch burner smeared his legs with car grease. When he stepped into the room and soiled the freshly scrubbed floor, he was chastised by his mother. To comfort the boy, his grandfather took him on a walk to a neighboring village and told a fabulous story that he himself heard from his grandfather: A pitch burner wanted to escape the approaching plague with his family and fled into the deep forests. But it didn't help and the family died, only the little son of the pitch burner survived. He found a stray little girl and under the guidance of the boy both escaped from the forest. Years later, when the boy had already grown into a young man, the girl from back then went to see him and it turned out that she was a lady of the castle. He followed her and achieved wealth and prestige. So much for the grandfather's story.
When grandfather and grandson got home that evening, the thing with the car grease was forgotten. The narrator concludes by stating that, although he remembers the narrative in great detail, he does not remember the circumstances that started it all. He does not know whether and how the bad luck has been removed.
construction
Although the narrative is relatively short (in the first edition of 1853 it takes up 60 pages), the author uses several time levels: the outer frame plot , which is located in the present, the inner frame plot at the time of the narrator's childhood, and the inner narrative of the grandfather .
Emergence
A first version under the title Die Pechbrenner appeared in 1848 in: Vergißmeinnicht. Paperback for 1849 , Verlag Thomas, Leipzig. Stifter wrote this story according to his own statements in the winter of 1847–48. In a letter to editor Carl Herloßsohn he writes that this is based on a story by his own paternal grandfather (Augustin Stifter, 1744–1834). The poet's hometown was actually hit several times by plague epidemics: 1464, 1585, 1680 and 1713. Since Stifter's great-great-grandfather Georg Stüffter was born in 1680, the plague epidemic of 1713 is probably meant, but oral traditions from 1680 may also have been incorporated.
While the fate of the family of the Pechbrenner boy is described in detail in Die Pechbrenner , this is only partially cut in granite . In the original version, 13-year-old Josef helps desperate strangers and thereby brings the plague over his family. As a punishment, his father abandons him to starvation on an inaccessible rock. Only with the help of two other survivors, the strange little girl Magdalena and the servant Knut, does he manage to escape his predicament. All three find their way out of the forest. The end of the first version, like the beginning, largely coincides with granite .
Stifter completed the revision in January 1852. It is the only story from the Bunter Stones that is shorter in the book version.
Geographical classification
Stifter uses this story, like many others, to describe the Bohemian Forest region, the home of his childhood. He uses several authentic place names. In addition, Stifter gives, comparable to a historical novel , information on the social structure of South Bohemia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Century.
literature
- Adalbert Stifter: Colorful stones. Stories. Stuttgart 1994.
- Adalbert Stifter: All the stories from the first prints , Ed. Wolfgang Matz. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 2005 ISBN 3-423-13369-4
Individual evidence
- ↑ The story Granit on Projekt Gutenberg , viewed on June 8, 2020
- ↑ Granit in the first edition from 1853 in the German Text Archive , viewed on May 16, 2013
- ↑ a b Adalbert Stifter - All stories from the first prints , Ed. Wolfgang Matz. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 2005 Commentary on Die Pechbrenner S. 1621f ISBN 3-423-13369-4
- ↑ Adalbert Stifter - Complete Stories p. 1180ff