Confession of a murderer, told in one night

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Confession of a murderer, told in one night is a novel by Joseph Roth that was published by Allert de Lange in Amsterdam in 1936 . Semjon Semjonowitsch Golubtschik tells his life story - that of a spy of the Tsarist secret police Okhrana . Finally, grown old and gray, he turns out to be a pathetic henpecked hero.

time and place

The novel is set in Russia and Paris in the first third of the 20th century . The alleged double murder happened during the outbreak of the First World War in Paris. The history of the "murder" took place years before the war in Ukraine and then in Paris. Golubchik tells his story - probably in the mid-1930s - in Paris.

shape

Two first-person narrators appear in the novel . Golubchik tells his life to the narrator of the framework story in a Paris restaurant. The reader expects - see the title of the novel - a murder. But he is being led by the nose. Golubchik, the narrator of the internal story , turns out to be a coward, but not a murderer. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that this informer Golubchik became a murderer during his many years of "professional activity". In addition, the author believes that Golubchik is the person whom Belarusian émigrés call "our murderer" because he killed a communist informer in Paris. One of the fable's weaknesses: Golubchik knows from the start of the story that throughout the war he was mistaken about being a double murderer.

content

The Russian Golubchik from Volynia has Prince Krapotkin as his father, but is the son of the simple forester Golubchik. The mother had cheated on the prince . As a high school student in Odessa, the boy asked his father to be called Krapotkin. The prince laughs at him, gives him good advice and gives him a gift. Golubchik moves away like a doused poodle. Before that, he made the acquaintance of his half-brother, the young Prince Krapotkin, at the princely palace. The treacherous boy is loved by the old prince. Golubchik wants to destroy the half-brother. Golubchik's new friend, the hop commissioner Jenö Lakatos from Budapest , Rakocziutca 31, puts Golubchik behind bars as a supposed thief. Intimidated, Golubchik lets himself be recruited as a police spy in prison - becomes an agent for the Ochrana . Golubchik is sent to Nizhny Novgorod and put in prison cells with revolutionaries. The "confessing" chat bags come to Siberia . In Petersburg , Golubtschik meets the Parisian mannequin Annette Leclaire, known as Lutetia. At first sight he falls in love with the beautiful. During his spying activity, Golubchik has to experience his Lutetia in the company of the hated young prince Krapotkin of all people. In his urge to become a krapotkin, Golubchik puts the half-brother in jail for a few days. The supervisor punishes him for it. Golubchik is sentenced to eternal love - he has to follow Lutetia to Paris. There, the spy Golubchik is allowed to use the alias Krapotkin and is henceforth in higher service, in the service of his passion . Lutetia, daughter of a respected dressmaker at the time , had given herself to the informant. Now, in Paris, he has to portray the young prince. Strangely enough, the half-brother appears in Paris as Golubchik's rival. Lakatos, present throughout the novel as evil itself, is also up to mischief in the French capital.

The petty informer Golubchik does not always succeed in appearing as Prince Krapotkin. So he makes reproaches to the cleaning addict Lutetia about her expensive wardrobe. From the time of this rebellion, the stocky Golubchik regularly receives blows from the tender lover - with both fists in the face . Still, she loves him. After tangible arguments, the couple remained united, long hours, in a blissful hatred .

For Golubchik's professional ears, there is enough to listen to in Paris . When the informer catches his Lutetia naked in bed with the hated half-brother, he strikes until blood flows and the naked lie lifeless.

The war breaks out. Golubchik takes part in the fighting on the Russian side. After the war he is drawn back to the crime scene on the Seine . It turns out that Lutetia and the half-brother are alive.

Finally, the aged Lutetia enters the restaurant where Golubchik told his story to the author of the novel. Golubchik has disappeared. Fearing his Lutetia, he crawled under the table. The author goes to his hotel. There Lakatos approaches him.

Quotes

  • A word exists, an act passes!
  • What do the greats of this world concern me!

reception

  • Ludwig Marcuse cannot muster any sympathy for some deficiencies against the civil code .
  • Stefan Zweig praises the taut shape, measured against the “stretched” “ Tarabas ”.
  • Golubchik's fault lies in his actions .
  • Müller-Funk considers the composition of the novel to be successful. The work is also a piece of autobiography.
  • Steierwald writes about confessional structures : Golubtschik tells because he wants to justify himself.

expenditure

  • Joseph Roth: Confession of a murderer, told in one night . In: Joseph Roth: Novels . Volume 3, pp. 9–134, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-462-02379-9 (page numbers according to this edition; the volume also contains the wrong weight ).
  • Joseph Roth works 6. Novels and short stories 1936–1940 . Edited by Fritz Hackert, pp. 1–126: Confession of a murderer, told in one night . Novel. 1936. With an afterword by the editor. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7632-2988-4 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Roth p. 52
  2. ↑ Roth p. 68
  3. ↑ Marcuse's open letter to the author, quoted in Sternburg, p. 457, 16. Zvo
  4. ↑ Zweig's letter to the author, quoted in Sternburg, p. 457, 5th Zvu
  5. ↑ Nürnberger p. 117
  6. ↑ Müller-Funk p. 25
  7. ↑ Müller-Funk p. 31
  8. ↑ Steierwald pp. 35, 111, 120