The pavilion on the dunes
The Pavilion on the Dunes ( English. The Pavilion on the Links ) is a short story by the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson , which was written in 1879/1880 and was published in Cornhill Magazine in the fall of 1880.
A "civilization-weary tramp " finds happiness on the way.
content
The 30-year-old Scot Frank Cassilis leads a vagabond life. He wanders and rides through his homeland. The lonely academic has no financial worries.
Frank tells the story of his marriage to Clara. The young girl accompanies her father, Bernard Huddlestone. This bankrupt banker finds shelter in the pavilion, as R. Northmour's lonely country house on the dunes in the Scottish Graden Easter on the North Sea shore is called. The creditors are after Mr. Huddlestone - Carbonari from Trentino and Parma . The mad banker has embezzled the money of the gentlemen.
Northmour, who had been Frank's fellow student nine years before the start of the story, wants to save old Huddlestone's life, but asks for Clara's hand as a reward.
Frank, who comes along with sackcloth and bags, stops near the pavilion. He gets to know and love Clara. Love is returned from the start.
Stevenson surprises the reader with a trick. During the narration, Frank steps forward a few times. So he soon speaks of his beloved wife Clara, although he will only marry her after the time told has ended. The reported events must have taken place far back when the story was told, because Frank even mentions Clara's death at one point in the middle of the text. However, the reader does not learn how Clara died.
The two Huddlestones, Frank and Northmour barricade themselves in the pavilion. After those trapped have survived the first attack, the "Italian freedom fighters" set fire to the pavilion. Old Huddlestone is the first to leave the fortress, is shot near the beach and sinks into the alluvial sand without a trace . Frank and Northmour save Clara. Northmour leaves the woman to the former friend of the same age and current rival without a fight. Years later, Northmour falls under Garibaldi in Tyrol .
reception
- Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in 1907: "Even today I consider the pavilion in the dunes to be one of the most important short stories in world literature."
- Poschmann emphasizes the strict novellist structure of the "gripping, artfully constructed plot" and writes that by getting Frank Cassilis involved in the armed conflict, he had to give up his self-imposed social isolation because he wanted to maintain his humanistic attitude.
- Dölvers draws attention to the rather improbable fable (for example Huddlestone's disappearance without a trace in the alluvial sand) and notices something like slapstick (for example the action of the Italian revolutionaries in the Scottish dunes), but praises Stevenson's narrative talent. With a sure hand the author paints the "picture of an uncertain, frightening world". In addition, a certain order arises in the text through the dominance of the psychic.
- Wolfgang Hilbig , following in the footsteps of Arthur Conan Doyle, appreciated the story (see The Letter ).
Film adaptations
in English
- 1920 USA : The White Circle . Silent film by Maurice Tourneur with John Gilbert as Frank Cassilis, Janice Wilson as Clara Huddlestone, Harry Northrup as Northmour and Spottiswoode Aitken as Bernard Huddlestone.
- 2004: The Pavilion . Direct-to-video by C. Grant Mitchell with Craig Sheffer as Frank Cassilis, Patsy Kensit as Clara Huddlestone, Richard Chamberlain as Bernard Huddlestone and Daniel Riordan as Northmour.
German-language literature
expenditure
- Robert Louis Stevenson: The Pavilion on the Dunes. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . Translated into German by Curt Thesing . (RL Stevenson Collected Works, edited by Marguerite and Curt Thesing). Buchenau & Reichert Verlag, no year (around 1930). 250 pages.
- Robert Louis Stevenson: The Pavilion on the Dunes . Pp. 312-379. (Translator: Barbara Cramer ) in Robert Louis Stevenson: The Enigmatic Life. Master tales. ( Des Sire de Malétroit's door. Markheim . Olalla . The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . The crooked Janet . John Nicholson's unfortunate adventures . Will of the mill . The pavilion on the dunes ) Afterword by Karl-Heinz Wirzberger . Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung , Leipzig 1953, 400 pages.
- Robert Louis Stevenson: The Pavilion in the Dunes. Olalla . Translated by Marguerite and Curt Thesing. Alexander Duncker Verlag Otfried Kellermann, Munich 1954. 149 pages.
- Robert Louis Stevenson: The Pavilion in the Dunes. John Nicholson, the unlucky one. Illustrated by Werner Ruhner . Translator: Rudolf Köster (pavilion) and Günter Löffler . Epilogue: Henri Poschmann. New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1965.
Secondary literature
- Horst Dölvers: The narrator Robert Louis Stevenson. Interpretations. Francke Verlag, Bern 1969, without ISBN. 200 pages
- Michael Reinbold: Robert Louis Stevenson. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1995, ISBN 3-499-50488-X .
Web links
in English
- The illustrated edition from 1913 (see caption above right) for browsing and reading in the Internet Archive
Remarks
- ↑ Frank Cassilis (right on the illustration) says to Northmour (left): "The girl there, as you call her, is my wife." (Edition used, p. 348, 14th Zvu)
- ↑ According to Wirzberger (epilogue in the edition used, p. 387 above), the location of the action is Graden Easter (the following topoi are also mentioned: Graden Floe, Graden Wester, Cauldhaven and the Caulder Hills with the Graystiel mountain) near North Berwick .
- ↑ Edition used.
Individual evidence
- ↑ engl. Gordon Browne
- ↑ engl. Cornhill Magazine
- ↑ Wirzberger, p. 386, 2. Zvo and Reinbold, p. 69–71
- ↑ Dölvers, p. 129, 3. Zvo
- ↑ Dölvers, p. 117, 3rd Zvu
- ↑ Arthur Conan Doyle in Through the Magic Door quoted in Reinbold, p. 147, second entry
- ↑ Poschmann in the afterword of the Berlin edition from 1965, p. 189 above
- ↑ Dölvers, p. 121, 21. Zvo and p. 129, 9. Zvo
- ↑ Dölvers, p. 129, 7. Zvo
- ↑ engl. Harry Northrup
- ↑ engl. The White Circle in the IMDb
- ↑ engl. Daniel Riordan