The little singer

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The little singer. The story of a young soul is a novel by the Austrian writer Dolores Viesèr . It first appeared in 1928.

Das Singerlein is the author's first work, which she wrote between 1922 and 1926. The novel is set in Carinthia at the beginning of the 18th century , particularly in Sankt Veit an der Glan , and depicts the fate of an orphan boy who dies at a young age. The book, written very sensitively in a child's soul, was written from a emphatically Catholic point of view and was a great success that helped the author to become known. In addition to her later novel about Hemma von Gurk , Das Singerlein remained one of the most important books by Dolores Vièser. It is both a historical novel and an evolutionary novel. The language uses elements of the Carinthian dialect, especially in the dialogues.

action

The boy Hansl travels the world alone with his father as a musician and violinist. The mother left father and child to lead a frivolous life, which Hansl does not know. When his father dies impoverished while passing through St. Veit, Hansl is left alone. He comes into contact with a Franciscan named Bernardin, who takes care of him and gives him a place in the Singerhaus, where he receives musical training as a choirboy and is allowed to attend Latin school. Since losing his home and father, Hansl has been longing more and more for God and the eternal things that alone seem to endure. Father Bernardin becomes his most important caregiver, recognizing the religious meaning and the purity and sincerity of his soul. Since he seems worthy and capable, Bernardin promotes Hansl's soul guide, his ambitions to become a religious priest. Among the other children in the Singerhaus, it is above all Georg who is important to Hansl and with whom he becomes friends. This son of impoverished aristocrats is considered very difficult and naughty, but becomes more discreet and disciplined under the influence of Hansl.

After a year, however, suddenly the lady-in-waiting Heloise appears, who heard Hansl play during a mass and who likes him. She comes from Dresden and with her frivolous way of life and outward beauty embodies the charms of the world that Hansl has not felt before. Heloise appears to the poor boy like an angel from another world whose magic he threatens to succumb to. An Italian musician who is madly in love with Heloise recognizes Hansl's great musical talent and wants to take him with him. Hansl, who is in love with Heloise, threatens to abandon his planned path in life and succumb to the temptations of the world, which are consistently negative in the book. At the last moment, however, he realizes that Heloise lied to him and is not serious about him.

Veracini, the Italian musician, cannot win over Heloise and therefore wants to force her love by conjuring up demonic powers. Knowing this, Hansl tries desperately to save his soul and hurries after him to the Magdalensberg at night to thwart the evocation of the devil. He falls in the dark and is hard on the inside. Since a heavy thunderstorm is falling, he lies completely soaked for a long time before he is discovered and rescued. Hansl broke his foot, but also contracted an insidious lung disease. In the last part of the novel it soon becomes clear that Hansl will die. Until that happens, however, he must gradually say goodbye to everything he has loved. His beloved Father Bernardin also leaves the country to become a missionary to the Indians. At the end he also gives away his violin, the last possession he was hanging on. Then he is freed from everything earthly, completely open to God, who finally comes to fetch the fifteen-year-old boy himself in a moving scene, in the form of the baby Jesus with Mary, the Mother of God. Hansl, who is portrayed as a saint in many ways, dies knowing that his friend Georg will realize what Hansl had planned and become a monk and priest.

expenditure

  • The little singer . Kösel, Munich 1928
  • The little singer . Mayer & Comp., Vienna 1948
  • The little singer . Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1981
  • The little singer . Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1999

Slovenian translation

  • Pevček. Zgodba mlade nozzle . Translation: Janez Pucelj. Mohorjeva Založba, Klagenfurt 2001

Web links

  • Inwardness and Authority Chapter from a dissertation from 1989, deals with Viesèr's worldview as expressed in Das Singerlein .