Fear (novella)

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Fear is a novella by Stefan Zweig that shows the fears of an adulteress . The novella was written in Vienna in 1910 and published for the first time in 1920 and 1925 as an independent work.

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Irene Wagner, the main character of the novella, has a lover. Whenever she leaves, she is afraid that her husband will find out that she is cheating on him. One day she is stopped by a woman who claims that Irene stole her lover from her. This woman blackmails Irene, whereupon she gives her money and flees. At home she writes a letter to her lover saying that she will not be able to see him in the next few days. However, since he continues to believe in the relationship between the two, she meets him the next day in a café, but only makes hints and leaves him in the dark. When she comes home, she meets the blackmailer again and has to give her money again. As a result, she does not leave the house for three days, which her family notices.

On the third day, she and her husband are invited to a ball and have to go out. There she dances as if in a frenzy, but then notices that her husband is becoming suspicious. The following night, she has a nightmare in which the blackmailer tells her husband about their affair. The next day Irene received a letter demanding 100 crowns, which she immediately gave to the messenger. When she comes back to the lunch table, she realizes that she left the letter open. So she takes it and burns it quickly. Again, a remark from her husband makes it seem as if he suspects something. When she goes for a walk in the afternoon, she meets her lover whom she ignores. The next day she got another letter asking for 200 kroner. Again she pays without resistance, but then has rest for a while.

When she comes home one day, the husband is playing court with the children because the girl has destroyed one of her brother's toys. On the occasion, she talks to her husband about guilt, whereupon she has the feeling again that he suspects something. Some time later, the blackmailer rings the doorbell and demands Irene's engagement ring. At first she doesn't want to give him up, but then her husband comes and she has to rush to obey. The next day she walks around town and feels followed by her husband all the time. Eventually she got the idea to ask her lover if he could talk to the blackmailer. But when she comes to his apartment, he says he doesn't know her. Irene discovers that he already has a new lover.

Then she goes to the pharmacy and buys a poison with which she wants to kill herself. Her husband shows up and takes her home, where she collapses. He tells her that he has hired an unemployed actress to blackmail her into leaving her lover.

Film adaptations

Theater versions

Koen Tachelet, a dramaturge at Johan Simons , the designated artistic director of the Münchner Kammerspiele , edited Zweig's novella for the stage. This version was premiered by director Jossi Wieler on July 28, 2010 as part of the Salzburg Festival in the Salzburg State Theater. The reviewer of DeutschlandRadio Kultur , Ulrich Fischer, was disappointed that the arrangement allows the piece to be played today instead of around 1900, without taking into account the achievements of freedom from fear that have since been achieved through greater gender equality.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ruled that editing was the outrage of the season .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan BRANCH: Flat list. Counting according to Rainer-Joachim Siegel, in: Gero von Wilpert / Adolf Gühring, first editions of German poetry - a bibliography of German literature 1600–1990, 2nd ed. Pp. 1710–1715, Stuttgart: Kröner 1992 ( Memento from October 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ DNB 36315793X
  3. ↑ DeutschlandRadio Kultur from July 28, 2010: “The truth is concrete!” Fear of a novella by Stefan Zweig in Salzburg
  4. ↑ FAZ of July 30, 2010, page 31