The blind mirror
The blind mirror is a short novel by Joseph Roth , published in 1925 in Berlin by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Dietz Nachf.
The young stenographer Fini becomes a woman, has no luck with any man and drowns in the river.
time and place
The action takes us to Vienna in the middle of the First World War and ends there in March 1920.
action
Fini, born in April 1900 working in the office of Dr. Finkelstein as a stenographer. Together with the mother, the older sister and the younger brother, the girl gets through right and wrong. But Fini is laid off, but luckily finds a new job in a large warehouse . Fini's father returns home from the field. A grenade had spilled him . Having become deaf, he limps to the hospital on a stick .
The first man with whom Fini - awakened to a woman - slept is the violinist Ludwig. Fini should have been warned. This artist had already made the older sister unhappy. When Fini realizes what kind of a Ludwig Ludwig is - aging, shortsighted, casual, forgetful, laboriously breathing , he has already fallen for her . Ludwig gives Fini a promise to marry, but does not keep it.
After the war Fini falls in love with Rabold, the speaker, and sinks into his bed . But the lover, whose good words she drinks thirstily, drives away. Fini never sees Rabold again. He sends her money, but Fini carelessly puts the bills aside. The young woman no longer eats and wants to see her lover. So she leaves the city, comes to the river , follows its course , falls into the water and drowns. Fini had wanted to go to heaven .
Quote
But anyone who, like us, comes out of the narrow houses and grows up in the rooms with the blind mirrors, remains hesitant and humble all his life.
shape
The text is a linguistic masterpiece. Sometimes the reader believes in “lyrical” prose.
Self-testimony
Hackert quotes Bronsen: When in 1934 an admirer called the Blind Mirror a delicate and affectionate book , Joseph Roth replied: You put it well .
reception
- Joseph Roth wrote the Blind Mirror in Paris in 1925 with great virtuosity .
- Steierwald demonstrates the subject-centered view in the story with examples.
words and phrases
- the stingy kerosene lamp
- the dark purple tones
literature
source
- Fritz Hackert (Ed.): Joseph Roth Works 4. Novels and Stories 1916 - 1929 . P. 352 to 388: The blind mirror. 1925. With an afterword by the editor. Frankfurt am Main 1994. 1086 pages. ISBN 3-7632-2988-4
Secondary literature
- David Bronsen: Joseph Roth. A biography . Cologne 1974. 713 pages, ISBN 3-462-00910-9
- Helmuth Nürnberger : Joseph Roth . Reinbek near Hamburg 1981. 159 pages, ISBN 3-499-50301-8
- Ulrike Steierwald: Suffering from history. On the modern conception of history in the texts of Joseph Roth. Diss. Munich 1992. 198 pages, ISBN 3-88479-880-4
- Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . 519. Stuttgart 2004. 698 pages, ISBN 3-520-83704-8
- Wilhelm von Sternburg : Joseph Roth. A biography. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2009 (2nd edition), ISBN 978-3-462-05555-9 , pp. 319–322