Bailiff's maid

Amtmanns Magd is a novel (family novel, romance novel ) that E. Marlitt published in 1881 in the family weekly Die Gartenlaube (Issues 1–13). The first book edition followed in the same year in the publishing house of the former publisher of the garden gazebo , who died in 1878 , Ernst Keil . The early book editions contain illustrations by Oskar Theuer .

The novel tells the story of the landlord, Markus, in which the encounter with the supposed maid of an impoverished civil servant family triggers a storm of contradicting and complicated feelings. Only late in the story does he discover who the mysterious young woman actually is.

action

In the 17th chapter, the maid, always hidden under a white headscarf, is compared with the veiled picture of Sais .

The place of the action is an estate in Hirschwinkel, a fictional place in the Thuringian Forest, the time is the present of the author, i.e. the 1860s.

Chapters 1-3. The old forester Klotilde is dead. Heir to the estate is her nephew, Mr. Markus, owner of a Berlin machine factory. When he arrives, the first person he meets in Hirschwinkel is the bailiff's maid, an attractive but extremely dismissive young woman hidden under a large white headscarf, who immediately gets into an argument with him. Bailiff Franz and his wife Sannchen have seen better days as tenants on Gelsungen, a princely domain, but are now old and frail. Since Sannchen was her childhood friend, the Oberforstmeisterin her and her husband had the Vorwerk left to manage, even though the couple has long been can not longer afford the rent. The bailiffs have an only son, Otto, who went to California to make his fortune in the gold rush . A niece of the bailiff, Agnes Franz, who is trained as a governess, also lives in the Vorwerk. Agnes remains strangely invisible during the course of the plot. She, of all people, should inherit the Vorwerk, according to the will of the head forester.

Chapters 4-5. Markus returns to his new property, the actual estate. The estate is managed by tenants: Peter Griebel and his wife Jettchen, who also have a 16-year-old daughter Luise. In the days that followed, Markus ran into the bailiff's maid by chance, and there was always an argument. The maid is remarkably cultivated for a young woman of her class. When Markus asks her about the heiress of the Vorwerk, Agnes Franz, she reveals that she is on very familiar terms with him. This challenges Markus to further attacks, because he doesn't think much of learned women. As much as the maid keeps infuriating him, Markus is jealous when he discovers that she is on friendly terms with the young forester, Fritz Weber.

Chapters 6–9. A tramp appears in the Hirschwinkel. Markus and Frau Griebel feed him; later he also meets the maid who seems to recognize him. Markus doesn't pay any attention to this. Since the bailiffs have problems building a new railway line, which endangers their dilapidated house, Markus begins to selflessly help the old people. He promises them a new house and even wants to accommodate them in the manor house during the construction work.

Chapters 10-16. But he always has new arguments with the maid. A new reason for this is that the maid is now often in the forester's house. In the course of one of these arguments, Markus tries to snatch a sickle from the maid who was working in the garden, cutting his hand deeply. The fact that she provides the wound with medical expertise confuses him further, but also instills him with confidence. Little by little, his ambivalent feelings give way to a definite affection.

Chapter 19 also compares the maid to the biblical Ruth .

Chapters 17-20. Finally, Markus discovers that the maid and the always hidden Agnes Franz are one and the same person. Bailiff Franz had encouraged him in his foolish misunderstanding of the truth because he was ashamed that the well-trained niece had to work like a maid. Agnes visits the forester's house again and again because here she takes care of the sick tramp, who is actually none other than Otto Franz, the bailiff's son. Otto has not found any gold in California and, so that his parents do not worry too much about him, he should be nursed up before he returns home. When Agnes learns that she should inherit the Vorwerk, she resigns in favor of Otto. You and Markus become a couple. Otto and Luise also become a couple.

shape

Amtmanns Magd is the only one of Marlitt's prose works that is consistently told from the perspective of the male main character. Markus gets tangled up in his own prejudices and only realizes the true identity of the main female character very late. Alongside Das Haideprinzesschen , the novel is the second work in which Marlitt has tried unreliable narration .

Expenses (selection)

• Bailiff's maid . Ernst Keil, Leipzig 1881.
• Bailiff's maid . Weichert, Berlin 1920.
• Bailiff's maid . Eduard Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 1957.
• Bailiff's maid . Deutscher Literatur-Verlag, Hamburg 1987, ISBN 3-87152-241-4 .
• Bailiff's maid . Kelter, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-87152-241-4 .
• Bailiff's maid . Hofenberg, Berlin 2015, ISBN 3-8430-3186-X .
• Bailiff's maid . epubli, Berlin 2019, ISBN 3-87152-241-4 .

In other languages :

• The bailiff's maid . Donohue, Henneberry & Co., Chicago 1881 (English).
• Správcova služka . Nákl. Aloisa Hynka, V Praze (Czech).

Web links

Wikisource: Amtmanns Magd  - Sources and full texts

• Magistrate's maid at Zeno.org