The smith of his luck

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The smith of his luck is a humoresque by Gottfried Keller from the year 1865. At Christmas 1873 Ferdinand Weibert published the text in the third volume of the second part of the novella cycle The People of Seldwyla near Göschen in Stuttgart.

" The smith of his luck actually forges his misfortune."

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The almost forty-year-old bachelor Johannes Kabis anglicized his name to John Kabys because he believes that the right name is part of future happiness. John doesn't like to work as hard as possible, but wants to forge his luck with a few master strokes. The named naming is the first hammer blow. Master stroke number two fails. John is free for Miss Oliva. The young lady has traveled to Seldwyla from abroad with her wife Mama. John Kabys-Oliva - the double name would be to John's taste. So he gets engaged to the young lady and learns that the bride's family name is actually chief. In addition, the maiden has a somewhat disproportionately large head. John quickly lost his nickname among the Seldwylers: John Kabys-Häuptle, in German Hans Kohlköpfle. A marital connection “with such a head skull” is no longer an option for John. He wants to "forge the missing work"; frees her mother and gets a basket. The mother has now found out what a poor man John is. The two women go to the neighboring town to catch men.

John survives in Seldwyla as a skilled barber . A customer from Germany talks about John's married cousin Adam Litumlei, a very rich old man, on the barber's chair. John visits the childless relative in Augsburg , wins their trust and risks the third master stroke - a resounding success. John indicates his departure and is promptly identified in a document as the heir of Johann Polycarpus Adam Litumlei. Well, luckily, John could lean back, but his fourth hammer blow is not at all masterful. He always waits until Litumlei goes into town and sleeps with the housewife every time. It turns out Litumlei is smarter than his cousin. Because “as a result of a confidential conversation his wife had with him”, Litumlei suddenly becomes “the epitome of complacency”. Presumably he had been informed of her unexpected pregnancy by the happy-to-be mother. Litumlei is hardly an option as a father. The old man has already divorced women twice after years of childless marriage. The two younger women freed from the fruitless coercive community had each had children from Litumlei's powerful successors. In any case, the good-humored Litumlei suggests that the pleasantly surprised cousin should go on an educational trip for several months. The unsuspecting John accepts. After his return, the housewife gave birth to a healthy son. Litumlei burned the above will long ago. He now has a lively heir without lies. The latter were alternately fantasized together by the two “self-expression geniuses” in a dream biography of John. In it, John was declared, with Litumlei's signature, to be his illegitimate son. Litumlei also burned this document long ago. John is chased out of the house, leaves Augsburg and buys a modest nail smithy in Seldwyla with his last money. Although there are no special master strokes on the anvil, John - who has become a craftsman again - succeeds in getting better and better nails over time.

reception

Statements from the 19th century

  • In 1874, Fontane rated the novella as "excellent".
  • Emil Kuh praised the story on December 28, 1874 in the “Wiener Abendpost” No. 296 (supplement to the “ Wiener Zeitung ”).
  • In a review on July 10, 1875 in the “ Deutsche Rundschau ” (pp. 33–47), Berthold Auerbach disturbs the “coldly allegorical” at the end of the text.

Recent comments

  • According to Böning, John Kabys reveals his own mother in his little novel by substituting the imaginary maiden Liselein Federspiel. So Gottfried Keller actually equates poetry with lying.
  • In their reviews, Schilling and Selbmann emphasize how the author pillories the capitalist inhuman dominance of money. Schilling picks out the passage in which John Kabys makes a stopover on his educational journey to "research into education" in the hometown of Seldwyla and notes how "girls are made educators" and sent to middle-class families in different parts of the world as "export items" with " Passport and umbrella ”.
  • Selbmann sees John's cross-border educational trip as a parody of the medieval Arthurian novel . John is not a “moral rascal”, but a loser from the early days .

filming

literature

First edition

  • The smith of his luck. in: The people of Seldwyla. Stories by Gottfried Keller. Second increased edition in four volumes. GJ Göschen'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1874

Used edition

  • The smith of his luck. P. 333–363 in: Thomas Böning (Ed.): Gottfried Keller. The people of Seldwyla. German classic publisher in paperback. Volume 10, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-618-68010-4 (corresponds to "Gottfried Keller, all works in seven volumes" (at the same place of publication by the same editor))

Secondary literature

  • Gründerzeit - the blacksmith of his fortune. P. 127–129 in: Diana Schilling: Keller's Prosa. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-631-34190-3 . At the same time dissertation from the University of Münster (Westphalia) in 1996
  • Fraudulent labeling. The smith of his luck. P. 82–86 in: Rolf Selbmann: Gottfried Keller. Novels and short stories. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2001 (Klassiker-Lektüren Vol. 6), ISBN 3-503-06109-6
  • Wolfgang Preisendanz : Poetic realism as the scope for the grotesque in Gottfried Keller's “The Smith of His Happiness” . Universitätsverlag, Konstanz 1998, ISBN 3-87940-359-7 .

Web links

Wikisource: The blacksmith of his luck  - source text and digitized version from 1874

annotation

  1. ↑ On June 19, 1865 (edition used, p. 624, 8th Zvu), Gottfried Keller had initially sent the manuscript to Vieweg in Braunschweig, but later dissolved the contract and on March 5, 1873 (edition used, p. 626, 3 . Zvu) signed a new contract with Göschen.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 628, 12. Zvo
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 626, 2nd Zvu
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 627, 5th Zvo
  4. ^ Böning in the edition used, p. 645, 18. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 355, 27. Zvo
  6. ↑ Edition used, pp. 355, 33. Zvo
  7. ^ Gerhard Kaiser , quoted in Selbmann, p. 84, 11. Zvo
  8. ↑ Selbmann, p. 83, 8th Zvu
  9. ↑ from Kurt Schreinert (ed.): Theodor Fontane. Literary essays and studies, part 1 (all works, vol. 21/1) , p. 258, Munich 1963, cited in the edition used, p. 644, 17. Zvo, by the editor Böning
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 641, 1. Zvu
  11. ↑ at Böning quoted in the used edition, p 643, 2nd ACR
  12. ^ Böning in the edition used, p. 646 below
  13. ↑ Edition used, p. 351, 15. Zvo
  14. ↑ Schilling refers to the text passage in the edition used, p. 357
  15. ↑ Selbmann, p. 84, 18. Zvu
  16. ^ Emil Ermatinger , quoted in Selbmann, p. 85, 16. Zvo
  17. ↑ Selbmann, p. 86, 11. Zvo
  18. ↑ Edition used, textual delivery, p. 666 middle, Sigel B