Colomba (Mérimée)

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Title page Colomba of
a Paris edition from 1862

Colomba is a novella by the French writer Prosper Mérimée , which appeared on July 1, 1840 in the magazine " Revue des Deux Mondes ". A year earlier, the author had been in Corsica , the location of the plot, in August and September . The Corsican vendetta is discussed .

The novel was first published in book form in 1841 by Magen & Comon in Paris. The first two German transmissions, arranged by Adolf Laun and Ludwig Schneegans , came out in Leipzig and Munich in 1872.

action

Around 1817 in France: The widowed Irish Colonel Sir Thomas Nevil, a passionate hunter, takes a Corsican schooner to Ajaccio from Marseille together with his only daughter Miss Lydia . On the trip, the two pleasure travelers make the acquaintance of the young lieutenant Orso Antonio della Rebbia. Orso comes from the Bastia area . In addition to their passion for hunting, the two military officers discover something else in common. At Quatre-Bras and Waterloo they faced each other as enemies. The first lieutenant had fought for the emperor in the eighteenth regiment of his father, Colonel della Rebbia . Then the father returned to the island and was murdered near the home village of Pietranera. Orso “as a staunch liberal ” condemns the vendetta to which the father fell victim. The family feuds of the della Rebbia against the House of Barricini go back to the 16th century. In 1812 the lawyer Giudice Barricini becomes mayor of the small town Pietranera and intrigues against Orso's father in several property matters. Shortly before his end, suffocating on his own blood after being shot in the lung, Orso's father scribbled the shooter's name in his notebook. The mayor gets the paper in his hands and presents the law enforcement authorities to one of the most wanted Corsican bandits as a murderer. A little later he was shot by police officers.

Orso had left Corsica at the age of 15, attended school in Pisa , had become an officer at the war school abroad and is returning to the island after years on the said schooner. He wants to marry off his sister and sell his small estates. First, however, Orso and Colonel Nevil set out early every morning from Ajaccio to hunt. The colonel comes to appreciate the lieutenant. Orso's 20-year-old beautiful sister Colomba picks up her brother on horseback. As a farewell, the colonel gives the hunting companion a large- caliber Manton rifle. Orso invites the two "English", as the Irish guests are called in Corsica, to Pietranera.

The plaintiff Colomba has been seeking revenge for two years. In public, the "tall and strong young woman who, fanatically obsessed with her barbaric sense of honor", accused Barricini of murdering her father. According to Colombo's will, Orso is to judge the shooter.

That’s what happens. What is more, the lieutenant shoots both of the lawyer's sons. Since Orso's return to the village, the double shot with the Manton rifle had already been preceded by a physical confrontation between the two warring parties, della Rebbia and Barricini, but in Colomba's eyes, the law of the fist proves to be far too weak a means to an end. The energetic girl has to give a lot of help. Colomba pours balls for Manton in the kitchen. Secretly, she slits the black horse of the mainland in civilization too liberal geratenen brother deceitful one ear to rise up out loudly about the villainous adversary. Such alleged insult gets Orso's cold blood flowing. After all, the lieutenant said he knew the reason for the murder of his father: Barricini had slandered his father while he was alive with a forged threatening letter. And of course the lawyer's sons lie in wait for the lieutenant. The vigilant war-tried hero Orso merely returns the enemy fire that wounds him.

When the shepherds of the Barricini move towards the della Rebbia, Colomba confronts the “cowards” with “pride” and “firmness”. The narrator said: “There was something overwhelming and terrible in Colomba's voice and demeanor; at the sight of her the crowd shrank back in shock ... “And a second time Colomba accuses the father of the two dead young men of having forged the piece of paper her father had scribbled over in his agony. With “a smile of contempt” she watches as the corpses are carried into the father's house of the opposing party.

Orso has to retreat to the bandits in the maquis as an outlaw and is chased by the police officers. Miss Lydia, meanwhile accepted Orso’s invitation with her father, stands up for the wounded man. After a few months, the proceedings against Orso will be dropped. It is proven that the first lieutenant acted in self-defense.

Miss Lydia and Orso get married. Her honeymoon takes her to Pisa with Sir Nevil and Colomba. In a restaurant, Colomba runs into the lawyer Giudice Barricini by chance. The lawyer has gone mad and is in the care of relatives. When the deranged man recognizes Colomba, he admits that the dying Colonel della Rebbia had scribbled the name of one of the two Barricini sons on the said page in the notebook. But, the patient asks, why did both sons have to die? Colomba stands by her revenge. She cannot forgive.

Quote

A Pisan innkeeper to her daughter about Colomba: "She has the evil eye !"

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The anonymous first-person narrator - certainly Prosper Mérimée - interferes every now and then. For example, he calls his work a "truthful narrative". He tells of a time ago, for example when the rider Orso disappears behind marshes, "in the place of which nowadays a beautiful tree plant rises". The narrator gives the reader an insight into his writing strategy: "I don't want to try to reproduce the feelings of the unhappy young man, which were so confused ..." Or he looks across chapter boundaries: "You will soon find out who these people were." Distance the narrator is not concerned with narration. Brusco, the resourceful dog of the bandits, is mentioned repeatedly. After all, the four-legged friend is “our” dog.

In this black and white painting with shading, Colomba is exclusively vengeful, Orso is torn between good and evil and the three barricini are painted as consistently bad people.

See also

Colomba Carabelli

Adaptations

Opera

Film adaptations

TV

German editions

  • Otto Görner (Ed.): Kolomba , pp. 71–225 (Translator: Adolf Laun ) in Prosper Mérimée: Carmen and other short stories . H. Fikentscher Verlag, Leipzig 1932 in the Hafis reading library. 317 pages

Used edition

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ The Bremen Adolf Laun (1807–1881) taught German at a grammar school in Bordeaux from 1835–1847 . Görner lists him among the translators as "dry, philological" (Görner, p. 313, 1. Zvo).
  2. ↑ In the later course of the plot on the island of Corsica, Orso Antonio is affectionately called Ors Anton by the local shepherds and bandits (shepherds do the work for the landowner Ors Anton in all weathers. Corsican bandits are consistently likable men who live in the maquis for a crime must and be fed and supplied with ammunition by Colomba to the best of their ability).
  3. ↑ Pietranera is now in the town of San-Martino-di-Lota in the canton of the same name .
  4. ↑ In the area around Pietranera there are only very few female beings who, on the deathbed of a Corsican who fell victim to the Vendetta, in the presence of the mourning community, celebrate plaintive ballads with full singing voices.
  5. ↑ The narrator's comment: "For this, one must know that the mutilation of the enemy's horse represents revenge, challenge and death threat at the same time for every Corsican." (Edition used, p. 186, 9th Zvo)

Individual evidence

Partly in French, English and Portuguese

  1. ↑ Görner, p. 313, 2nd Zvu
  2. ^ French literary arrangements on the subject of private justice
  3. ^ French Colomba
  4. ↑ Görner, p. 72.
  5. ↑ eng. the gunsmith Manton
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 124, 15. Zvo
  7. ↑ Edition used, p. 176, 12. Zvu and p. 187, 8. Zvo
  8. ↑ Edition used, pp. 186, 20. Zvo and p. 187, 14. Zvu
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 111, 6. Zvu and p. 161, 3. Zvu
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 205, 6th Zvu
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 236, 1. Zvu
  12. ↑ Edition used, p. 107, 7. Zvo
  13. ↑ Edition used, p. 124, 5th Zvu
  14. ↑ Edition used, p. 143, 7. Zvo
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 169, 4. Zvo
  16. ↑ operone.de, 3rd entry
  17. ↑ eng. Travers Vale
  18. ↑ eng. William J. Butler
  19. ^ Colomba (1915 USA). Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  20. ^ French Jean Hervé
  21. ^ French Victor Vina
  22. ^ Colomba (1920 France). Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  23. ^ French Jacques Séverac
  24. ↑ French. Genica Athanasiou
  25. ^ Colomba (1933 France). Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  26. ↑ eng. George Dolenz
  27. ↑ eng. Donald Buka
  28. ^ Vendetta (1950). Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  29. ^ Port. Sérgio Britto
  30. ↑ Port. Nathalia Timberg
  31. ^ Colomba (TV 1957). Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  32. ^ Colomba (TV 1972). Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  33. ↑ French Laurent Jaoui
  34. ↑ French Olivia Bonamy
  35. ^ French Grégory Fitoussi
  36. ^ French Claire Borotra
  37. ↑ The Revenge of Colomba (TV 2005). Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .