The fairy tale of the 672nd night

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Hugo von Hofmannsthal
* 1874 † 1929

The fairy tale of the 672nd night is a story by Hugo von Hofmannsthal that appeared in November 1895 in the Viennese weekly Die Zeit . The short text was first published in book form in 1905.

The author himself has his text in a note and in a letter - s. u. under self-testimony  - interpreted in the sense of the formula “inactivity paralyzes”.

content

A wealthy merchant's son who has lost his parents no longer takes pleasure in socializing at the age of twenty-five and withdraws completely from social life. Although the young gentleman is healthy, the thought of his death always strikes him once. He can only think of his passing as a sumptuous ceremony. In addition, the merchant's son sometimes ponders his servants. He comes to the realization that the lonely life he so desires does not exist because the servants circle around him "like dogs". The old housekeeper, with the Lord's permission, has taken a relative who is barely fifteen years old into the house. The merchant's son has the feeling that the withdrawn young girl is reluctant to be in his house; even more - it hate him. That is denied by the housekeeper. At the table, the gentleman is served by a beautiful woman who is a few years older than the little one. The two young ladies do not fill the merchant's son with desire. Uncomfortable - the house and garden are too narrow for him to escape the constantly demanding gaze of the two young girls. The merchant's son, anxious, notices a terrible fear rising in himself; the fear of “the inescapability of life”.

Once he leaves the house. His most loyal servant was charged with a heinous crime. The merchant's son wants to confront the slanderer, but does not meet him. When he gets into a disreputable area, he enters a "very poor" jewelry store. When he buys a half-blind silver mirror in it to please his old housekeeper, he is magically drawn to another mirror. In the latter he thinks he sees that young relative of the old housekeeper. It continues, deeper into the interior of the shop and from there over a neighboring property to a greenhouse. Between the foliage the merchant's son sees the face of a little girl who looks like a fifteen-year-old. When the child looks at him angrily, he feels horror on the back of his neck. As if under duress, he enters the glass house. The child turns down the gift of money from the merchant's son and locks him in the glass house. He finds an escape route and comes to a barracks yard. There he dies miserably: "He stooped, the horse struck his hoof sideways into his loin with all its might, and he fell on his back." His death is not at all splendid. Fear overwhelms him. He can overcome them, curses his servants who have driven him to death and dies with an "evil look" on his face.

Testimonials

  • "The monstrosity of life can only be made bearable by taking action; only ever considered, it paralyzes."
  • "If you could always live the way you want, you would lose all strength."

reception

  • Schnitzler in November 1895 in a letter to the author: The text is not a fairy tale. Towards the end, the story describes more of a nightmare .
  • In 1929 von Schaukal stated that the author had "forcibly instilled the magic" into his text.
  • The young author is said to have worked through his voluntary military service in Göding in 1894/1895 .
  • The failure of the merchant's son is initiated by his servants and, according to Sprengel, logically because he made himself dependent on dependents. Alewyn goes even further with his image of the prison "without walls and chains". The servants keep their master in captivity from which there is no escape.

expenditure

  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal: The Tale of the 672 th night. Story of the young merchant's son and his four servants. In: Die Zeit, Vol. 5, No. 57, November 2, 1895, pp. 79-80; No. 58, November 9, 1895, pp. 95-96; No. 59, November 16, 1895, pp. 111-112 (conclusion).
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal: The fairy tale of the 672nd night and other stories . With illustrations by Walter Hampel. Wiener Verlag, Vienna and Leipzig 1905 (first edition, 6th – 10th thousand; 123 pages; also contains “ Equestrian History ”, “The Experience of Marshal von Bassompierre ”, “ A Letter ”).
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal: The fairy tale of the 672nd night (1895) . Pp. 45-66. In: Ders., Collected works in ten individual volumes , ed. by Bernd Schoeller in collaboration with Rudolf Hirsch , Volume Erzählungen. Made up conversations and letters. Travel . S. Fischer Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-10-031547-2 (edition cited here).
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal: The fairy tale of the 672nd night. The narrative work. With an afterword by Ellen Ritter. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 978-3-10-031561-8 .
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal: The fairy tale of the 672nd night. Argon Verlag , Berlin 2005 (fifth edition), ISBN 978-3-87024-632-7 .

Audio book

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

Source means the quoted text edition

  1. ^ As under the title "The fairy tale of the 672nd night and other stories" published by Wiener Verlag (source, p. 666, second entry).
  2. ↑ Source, p. 61, 6th Zvu
  3. ↑ Quoted in Alewyn, p. 150, 16. Zvo
  4. ↑ Quoted in Alewyn, p. 150, 21. Zvo
  5. ↑ Sprengel, p. 293, 6. Zvo
  6. ↑ Alewyn, p. 146, 15. Zvu
  7. ↑ Richard von Schaukal in Wunberg (Ed.), P. 354, 1. Zvo
  8. ↑ Volke, p. 59, 20. Zvo and p. 167, entry 1894.
  9. ↑ Alewyn, p. 150, 3rd Zvu
  10. ↑ Sprengel, p. 292, 23. Zvo and p. 292, 30. Zvo
  11. ↑ Alewyn, p. 146, 10. Zvo