The saint and her fool

The Holy and Her Fool (1913) is the only novel that Agnes Günther has written. With over 140 editions and the number of printed copies over the million mark, it is one of the most commercially successful German books. The manuscript of the novel was discovered at Christmas 1911, ten months after her death, by Karl Josef Friedrich , her son's college friend, in the apartment in Marburg , revised by him for print in 1912 and published posthumously in May 1913 . The book was perceived as a kind of fairy tale , the protagonist of which , a princess, creates a detached atmosphere in which people are sensitive, their feelings are pure and all meanness is alien to them.

The heroine of the title worships her future beloved husband, a tall man who has "proud strength". The princess is affectionately called "little soul", a name that not only refers to her gift of the second sight , but to her whole personality. In the German trivial literature of the 19th century she stands for an embodiment of an ideal, virtuous woman, for devotion, sensitivity and purity. The book is to be assigned to the conservative trivial literature .

Book editions

The saint and her fool . [First edition]. Stuttgart: Steinkopf 1913.
The saint and her fool . Unchangeable Reprint of the complete orig. von 1913, 144th edition Kiel: Steinkopf 2011. ISBN 978-3-79840813-5

Film adaptations

The Saint and Her Fool in the Internet Movie Database (English) (1928) Director: William Dieterle
The saint and her fool in the Internet Movie Database (English) (1935) Director: Hans Deppe
The Saints and Her Fool (1957) Director: Gustav Ucicky

Web links

Wikisource: Agnes Günther - Sources and full texts

Review of the novel in the "Büchermarkt" of Deutschlandradio on May 31, 2011 (online at dradio.de)

Individual evidence

↑ Deutschlandradio Kultur from May 31, 2011: The Stuttgart antiquarian Frieder Weitbrecht, grandson of the then publisher Friedrich Weitbrecht at the Steinkopf publishing house , opened the handwritten book - on the first page the words "with God" are emblazoned - and he takes from it the development of the circulation: “We see 3,200 copies here in April 1913, 3,300 in September and 3,300 in December. So in the first year already 10,000. That's pretty quick. In February 1914 there were 6,600, and in June 10,000, in September 1914 alone 20,000 and in December another 20,000. How expensive was the book? 4 Mark 50. 1921, in November, another 10,300, 1923 6,600 and so it goes on. And to date, I think there are 1.7 million copies on the market. Of the 1.7 million, perhaps 1.65 million were sold before 1960. After that it subsided a lot. The publisher is now still selling the edition that was printed in 2001. " (online at dradio.de)

[1] Deutschlandradio Kultur from May 31, 2011: The Stuttgart antiquarian Frieder Weitbrecht, grandson of the then publisher Friedrich Weitbrecht at the Steinkopf publishing house , opened the handwritten book - on the first page the words "with God" are emblazoned - and he takes from it the development of the circulation: “We see 3,200 copies here in April 1913, 3,300 in September and 3,300 in December. So in the first year already 10,000. That's pretty quick. In February 1914 there were 6,600, and in June 10,000, in September 1914 alone 20,000 and in December another 20,000. How expensive was the book? 4 Mark 50. 1921, in November, another 10,300, 1923 6,600 and so it goes on. And to date, I think there are 1.7 million copies on the market. Of the 1.7 million, perhaps 1.65 million were sold before 1960. After that it subsided a lot. The publisher is now still selling the edition that was printed in 2001. " (online at dradio.de)