The governess
The governess is a novella by Stefan Zweig from 1911.
action
A strange, unheard of event disturbs two siblings who remain anonymous - little girls aged twelve and thirteen respectively - so much that the narrator has to admit at the end of the manageable text: “They haven't been children since yesterday”. The two very young protagonists have fully listened to their knowledge on the closed room doors of the adults at the scene of the action, an upper-class home. Because the two children love their governess, they are extremely concerned about her unmistakable disturbance. In addition, the girls do not receive any information from either side. The children register with sharpened senses, Otto, the cousin - a student preparing for exams - has been called into the governess' room. There he was confronted by the young woman with the bad news that he was pregnant. How could it be otherwise in middle-class circles at the beginning of the 20th century - the eavesdroppers have not yet been cleared up . As a result, they cannot understand what is actually really being negotiated behind the door. Otto, who has lived in his uncle's house for years, does not stand by his deed, but fled; moves out and takes a dormitory. The mother of the siblings chases the pregnant woman out of the house. The governess takes her own life a few hours before the tight deadline. The mother - typically adults - appears to the children as a miserable hypocrite. She doesn't pour pure wine for her offspring.
reception
According to Rovagnati, the author dealt with the “ psychology of adolescence ”. After the governess suicide, the sisters consider their mother and Otto to be enemies.
Rovagnati quotes a statement by Richard Specht - planned for a Russian edition with a motto by Maxim Gorki .
literature
First edition
- Stefan Zweig: First experience - four stories from Kinderland: story in the twilight. The governess. Burning secret. Summer novellette. 229 pages, Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1911
Used edition
- Stefan Zweig: The governess. In: Novellas. 3. Edition. Volume 2, Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1986, DNB 860499308 , pp. 85-105.
Secondary literature
- Gabriella Rovagnati: “Detours on the way to myself”. On the life and work of Stefan Zweig. (Treatises on art, music and literary studies. Volume 400). Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-416-02780-9 .
annotation
- ↑ This leads to a discrepancy. Eduard Spranger's work was published in 1924 and the novella in 1911.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Edition used, p. 531.
- ↑ see also Goethe's definition of novels
- ↑ Edition used, p. 104, 12. Zvo
- ↑ Rovagnati, p. 88 center
- ↑ Rovagnati, pp. 46, 78, 88, 92.
- ↑ Rovagnati, p. 88, footnote 54
- ↑ Stefan Zweig Bibliography and also Rovagnati, p. 78, footnote 3