The heart is a lonely hunter

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Carson McCuller's author (1959)

The heart is a lonely hunter is a novel by the American writer Carson McCullers . The book was published in May 1940 by Houghton Mifflin in Boston under the title The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter . McCullers began work on her debut novel in 1937 and completed it in 1939. At first the book was called The Mute (in German: Der Mute ), but when it was published in 1940 it was renamed The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter . The book is dedicated To Reeves McCullers and to Marguerite and Lamar Smith .

McCuller's work received a great deal of attention and was long on the 1940 bestseller lists. Time magazine ranked the novel among the top 100 English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.

The first German translation by Karl Heinrich was published by Alfred Kantorowicz in East Berlin in 1950 . In 1952 there was another transmission by Susanna Rademacher , which was published by Verlag Scherz & Goverts , Stuttgart and Hamburg . This translation has since been used for all other German-language editions, albeit in a later revised version. Susanne Lux-Meister and Elke Heidenreich shortened the text for the audio book version and translated it again in parts.

action

Carson McCullers tells the story of the deaf and mute John Singer in downtown Georgia in the late 1930s. Starting with his experiences with a second deaf-mute Spiros Antonapoulos, until he is admitted to an asylum , to his encounters with other important protagonists of the novel such as Mick Kelly, the landlord Biff Brannon, the Marxist Jake Blount and the black doctor Benedict Copeland describes McCuller's everyday events in Singer's life.

The four people play a role insofar as they come straight to Singer, the deaf and mute, with the problems they have and feel understood by him.

At the beginning of the book, the deaf and mute Singer and Antonapoulos live together. After a while, Antonapoulos has behavioral problems and is taken to an asylum. Singer feels lonely and abandoned and largely withdraws from public life. He takes his meals in Café New York, where he meets the landlord Biff Brannon and the drinking revolutionary Jake Blount. Singer lives in a rented apartment owned by the Kelly family. Mick Kelly is the landlord's 13-year-old daughter.

Benedict Copeland meets Singer for the first time when he visits him to talk to him about deaf dumbness. All four people have a good relationship with Singer and visit him often.

The book ends with John Singer's suicide .

Sign at Mayer House in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Carson McCullers wrote the first chapters of "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" in 1937

First part

Chapter 1

Singer and Antonapoulos are briefly described. Antonapoulos turns into a ruthless bully, steals things from shops and is rushed to an asylum by his cousin Charles Parker, who fears he will have to pay for the damage at some point.

Chapter 2

The scene takes place in Café New York. Jake Blount gets drunk in the restaurant and finally talks to John Singer, surprised that he doesn't answer. Blount does not yet know about Singer's deafness. Finally Blount leaves the restaurant, but is picked up by the police and brought back to the café. Singer offers to let the drunk sleep with him. Singer owns a rented apartment with the Kellys.

Chapter 3

Mick Kelly really gets into the action for the first time. Her preference for music is discussed.

Chapter 4

Blount learns of Singer's deafness. He is looking for a job that he finds at a fair as a mechanic. On the way he meets some workers whom he tries in vain to explain the abuses of workers in society.

Chapter 5

Portia, the Kellys' maid, visits her father, the doctor Benedict Copeland. For years he has had no contact with Portia's three brothers, Karl Marx “Buddy”, Hamilton and William “Willie”.

Chapter 6

Singer is now regularly visited by Mick Kelly, Jake Blount and sometimes Biff Brannon. Portia suggests that her father write a letter to Singer to talk to him about being deaf and dumb. Copeland is very interested in the subject since he has a patient who is deaf and dumb.

The Mayer House in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Carson McCullers wrote the first chapters of "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" in 1937

Second part

Chapter 1

Mick organizes a promenade party to which she invites students from her school between the ages of 12 and 15. For the first time in her life, she is putting on makeup and a dress. The party is disturbed by the neighbors' boys who weren't invited and who take the opportunity when Mick is taking a walk to sneak into the house.

Chapter 2

Biff Brannon's longtime wife Alice dies of a tumor in middle age. Lucile, Brannon's sister-in-law, and her talented daughter Baby appear for the first time. Lucile talks about old times with her sister Alice and how she wants to promote baby so that she can make a career.

Chapter 3

Doctor Copeland now visits John Singer frequently and the two of them are on good terms. Portia visits her father and tells him about a brawl and assault by her brother William, who then has to go to prison for nine months. Portia also invites her father to a family reunion which, for the first time in a long time, will be attended by Benedict Copeland's children.

Chapter 4

Jake Blount tells Singer about experiences in his past and his belief in communism .

Chapter 5

Bubber Kelly, 7 years old, loves baby's costume. Baby walks up and down the streets looking very arrogant. Bubber constantly wants to touch her costume and see her dance, at the same time he is playing around with a gun. When she finally passes him again, he shoots her in the head. Baby breaks skull but survives. Bubber, who is hiding in a tree house immediately after the crime, is found by Mick. She tells him he has to go to juvenile prison and Baby is dead, but leaves him alone. When she later wants to check on him, he is no longer there. In Portia's apartment, the Kellys find a note on which Bubber says he wants to go to Florida. The Kellys find him a mile outside of town. From now on, Bubber is completely changed and is no longer called Bubber, but with his real name George. The Kellys have to pay for babies' single rooms in the hospital as well as a private carer.

Chapter 6

As every year, Benedict Copeland organizes a Christmas party to which, with the exception of Singer, only blacks are invited. He gives a long speech in which he points out the problems black people face in everyday life, praises the thoughts and writings of Karl Marx and tries to convince the crowd of his opinion. Copeland also awards Lancy Davis an award for the best paper of the year on My Highest Aspiration: To Improve the Position of the Negro Race in Human Society .

Chapter 7

Singer writes Antonapoulos a letter in which he mentions that he will visit him again soon. When he arrives at the psychiatric institution, an assistant doctor explains to him that Antonapoulos has developed nephritis.

Chapter 8

Biff Brannon reminisces about the time with his wife Alice.

Chapter 9

The cost of paying for a single room and a private carer for the Kellys is so high that the family is financially ruined. Harry, a Jewish boy next door, explains to Mick that his greatest goal is to kill Adolf Hitler and fight fascism.

Chapter 10

Portia learns from her brother's former prison mate that Willie has been locked in an ice cell with him and another prisoner that winter. William had to have both feet amputated. The effects of Copeland's disease on pulmonary tuberculosis are becoming apparent. In the same chapter, Copeland tries to speak to a judge about Williams' mistreatment. While trying to get to the judge, he is beaten by three white men and taken to prison.

Chapter 11

Mick takes Harry on a trip to a river 25 kilometers outside the city. There she has sex with Harry for the first time, who then decides to work as a mechanic in another city. His mother desperately calls Mick and asks her if she knows where Harry is, but Mick tells her she doesn't know.

Chapter 12

Jake Blount learns that two work colleagues behind his back made fun of his size and ideology. In the intoxication of alcohol he insults strangers and from then on prints leaflets and writes slogans on walls to make readers think.

Chapter 13

Singer and Blount visit Willie Copeland, who has returned from prison and is staying with his father. Benedict Copeland, who doesn't get along very well with Blount, has a long conversation with the drinker that evening in which they discuss the problems of society. Both are staunch communists. They try to make plans to reshape society but fail to come to an agreement, so the conversation ends in a fight.

Chapter 14

Wilbur Kelly, Mick's father, wants to expand his watch repair shop due to the increasing financial worries. Mick applies for a job at the Woolworth department store, gets the job, and leaves school.

Chapter 15

Half a year after his last visit, Singer travels back to his friend Antonapoulos in the city where the insane asylum is located. When he arrives there, he is told Antonapoulos was dead. Back home commits Singer with a shot in his heart suicide .

third part

The third part consists of only four chapters and takes place on just one day, August 21, 1939.

Chapter 1

in the morning , Benedict Copeland moves in with his children on the farm they run.

Chapter 2

in the afternoon , The chapter begins with a mass brawl on the fair in which Blount is also involved. Two people die, including Essay Award winner Lancy Davis. Blount decides to leave town.

Chapter 3

in the evening , Mick goes to Café New York after work and looks back on how she found Singer after his suicide. She resolves to buy a piano and play the pieces she composed herself.

Chapter 4

at night , Biff Brannon is in his pub. He looks back on the old days and on the funeral service and Singer's funeral.

Others

  • In 2004, Oprah Winfrey recommended the book to her book club .
  • Elke Heidenreich , who also spoke the audio book, describes McCuller's work as her favorite book.
  • The book was published in German-speaking countries by Diogenes Verlag, among others . The picture used as the front cover of the German edition by Diogenes is called Automat and is a painting by Edward Hopper .
  • The American indie band The Anniversary released a track on their album Designing a Nervous Breakdown that bears the same title as the novel. A track by the Russian Blackgaze band Olhava also bears this title.

Movie

In 1968 Robert Ellis Miller made the film of the same name for the book with the actors Alan Arkin and Sondra Locke . The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor (Alan Arkin) and Best Supporting Actress (Sondra Locke) in 1968.

expenditure

  • Carson McCullers: Author's Outline "The Mute" , in: Oliver Evans: The Ballad of Carson McCullers . New York: Coward, 1966 (Exposé for a novel competition advertised by the publisher Houghton Mifflin, April 1938)
    • Carson McCullers: Notes on "The Dumb One" , translation by Elisabeth Gilbert, in: Gerd Haffmans (Ed.): About Carson McCullers . Diogenes, Zurich 1974, pp. 20-46
    • Carson McCullers: Exposé to "The Mute" , in: The Autobiography. Illumination and Night Glare . Edited and with an introduction by Carlos L. Dews, German by Brigitte Walitzek. Frankfurt am Main: Schöffling, 2002, pp. 307-340
  • The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter . New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1940
  • The heart is a lonely hunter: Roman . Authorized translation from the American by Karl Heinrich. Berlin: Kantorowicz, 1950
  • The heart is a lonely hunter: Roman . From the American by Susanna Rademacher . Stuttgart; Hamburg: Scherz & Goverts, 1952
  • The heart is a lonely hunter: Roman . From the American by Susanna Rademacher. New edition. With an afterword by Richard Wright. Zurich: Diogenes, 2013
Audio book
  • The heart is a lonely hunter . Read by Elke Heidenreich . Abridged audio book version by Elke Heidenreich, dramaturgy Susanne Lux-Meister, directed by Leonie von Kleist. Cologne: Random House Audio, 2004
Movie

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elke Heidenreich: My favorite book: "The heart is a lonely hunter" . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of July 15, 2004, page 31