The gold island
The Goldinsel is Ricarda Huch's prose debut from 1888 - the second year of her almost ten years in Zurich .
content
The Portuguese nobleman Diego Pacheco had served as an officer under Governor Lopez de Sequeira in Malacca at the beginning of the 16th century . After the much too early death of his wife, Pacheco takes care of his only daughter Gloria at home in Lisbon and wants to forget his suffering on voyages of discovery across the oceans. On his return he promises King Manuel the prospect of the discovery of the legendary Gold Island. Pacheco gets his ship from the gold-hungry king, sets sail and falls into slavery with the Malays for several years. Together with the 17-year-old local slave Ranwas, the 38-year-old Pacheco managed to escape.
Returning home to Lisbon, Pacheco falls from the clouds. King Manuel has appropriated Pacheco's property and also desires the now grown maiden Gloria. When meeting King Manuel, Pacheco keeps a cool head. With royal tolerance, he initiates a second journey to the Gold Island. This time he is accompanied by Goria and Ranwas. Gloria has read up that the gold island is called Cipangu . That is where the month-long sea voyage leads.
Pacheco already has a plan ready for the next trip. He wants revenge on his King Manuel; wants to escort the ruler to the gold island and burn the Portuguese ship shortly before landing with the king, himself and the crew. Before, on the current trip, Pacheco wants to leave Gloria and Ranwas, who confess their love to each other at the very end of the long sea voyage, after discovering the golden paradise - on the island of happiness, interspersed with golden mountains. It turns out differently. When land is finally in sight - Ricarda Huch leaves open whether it is about the Gold Island - the ship goes down; is devoured by the ocean with man and mouse.
reception
Pacheco, Gloria and Ranwas perish at the final ship sinking with the longed-for destination in mind. The reader is surprised by the event. Brekle notes that Pacheco's ship is sinking “as a result of a storm”. The reader turns the pages. Ricarda Huch writes about the unexpected event: Pacheco “looked pale and excited. 'The current is fast,' he said in a hoarse voice, 'it's as if we were getting into a vortex.' "
Above under the point of content , an outstanding element of the narrative, which Brekle describes as “representation of ideal ideas, the striving for the realization of just forms of life”, was concealed. Gloria in particular appears several times as Ricarda Huch's mouthpiece when royal despotism and severe oppression of freedom-loving people are pilloried. Brekle states at the end of his review of the text: "... the catastrophic end of those who fight for equality and justice is still inevitable."
Book editions
- Ricarda Huch: The Gold Island and other stories. Selected and provided with an afterword by Wolfgang Brekle (contains: The Gold Island. The Huguenot . Devils . Patatini . Fra Celeste . The end of the world . The Jewish grave . The last summer ). Union Verlag, Berlin 1972 (Licensor: Atlantis Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau and Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main), 376 pages (edition used)
literature
- Helene Baumgarten: Ricarda Huch. About her life and work . 236 pages. Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1964
Web links
- List of entries in the catalog of the German National Library
- List of entries in the WorldCat database
Remarks
- ↑ Ricarda Huch came to Zurich from her place of birth Braunschweig in 1887, because at that time a woman in Germany was not yet admitted to university (Baumgarten, p. 17). It was not until 1897 that the poet left Switzerland for Bremen (Baumgarten, p. 235, entry for anno 1897).
- ↑ King Manuel died at the end of 1521.