The witch of the parade
Die Hexe vom Korso is a novella by the German Nobel Prize winner for literature Paul Heyse , written in 1879 and published in Berlin in 1881 .
content
Erich, the "youngest son of a simple holstein een priest" continues as a 20-year-old against the father by - studied at the Berlin Academy of Architecture and four years later embarks as a budding architect to Rome . When the pale young scholarship holder of the Prussian Ministry, a fellow with rough bones and somewhat hulking manners, took part of his scholarship from a banker in Via della Vite, he was watched by a criminal, a little later on the street on the Korso , corner of Via dei Pontifici, attacked, stabbed and robbed after violent resistance. The young Italian Signora Gemma Durand, a “royal woman”, reads Erich from the threshold of her house and calls the extremely capable doctor Susina. He pulls the dagger out of the shoulder of the seriously injured man and takes care of the sick man. In the fever-free hours, the “poor stranger” plays with Bicetta, Gemma's five-year-old daughter. As soon as Erich is better in his convalescent corner, he devours Gemma with a look. Erich has no experience with women.
Marchese L. declares his love for Gemma in a letter and is rejected. Arrigo is - as Erich is called by the Italians - a beggar to the noble noblewoman. Still, Gemma holds still as he kisses her vigorously on the cheek. Ms. Durand only admonishes the slowly recovering hotspur: “... be sensible. If the mother found you like that. ”Gemma means her grumpy old mother, who grumpily manages the household on her own.
Erich moves out; changes to his old accommodation. Friend Kürdchen is visiting the sick. The friend knows Rome inside out; especially the area around the parade. Gemma is known by the locals of this area as the Witch of the Corso , since she appeared in costumes as a witch with the French consul Monsieur Durand at the carnival. Durand later left his wife simply by ship for Marseille .
When Gemma gets serious and wants to live with Erich in the future, the happy man ponders: Is her husband alive? Gemma does not accept that: "My husband left me shamefully." Just as Gemma does not submit to any man, he does not want to be on her pocket. Then Gemma: "As long as I'm not a beggar, money ... is not talked between us ... dear fool ...". Erich wants to flee Italy from Gemma, but he has to protect the woman from the intrusive Marchese L.
Too late. When Erich visits Gemma, it is in her blood - stabbed to death by the Marchese, who cannot get it. Gemma is not completely dead at first. She lets Erich kiss her on the mouth and dies calmly. The Marchese had used the dagger that had stuck in Erich's shoulder. So Erich is arrested as a suspect. At Gemma's funeral, however, Marchesa L. reveals herself to the open grave.
Kürdchen brings Erich the message of freedom to prison. Erich wants to take care of little Bicetta. The grandmother and the child have left Rome for an unknown destination.
reception
- 1965, Erler denies Heyses the "beauty cult" of its value: "Gemma's exquisite erotic qualities are just the characteristics of" a beautiful animal that you don't know how to talk to. "
- 1998, Sprengel says Heyse exaggerated the character contrasts of the two protagonists Gemma and Erich - classy versus plain
literature
expenditure
- The witch from the parade p. 399–487 in: Paul Heyse: The girl from Treppi. Italian love stories. With an afterword by Gotthard Erler . Illustrations: Wolfgang Würfel . 512 pages. Book publisher der Morgen, Berlin 1965
Secondary literature
- Werner Martin (Ed.): Paul Heyse. A bibliography of his works. With an introduction by Norbert Miller . 187 pages. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1978 (typewriter font), ISBN 3-487-06573-8
- Peter Sprengel : History of German-Language Literature 1870–1900. From the founding of the empire to the turn of the century. Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44104-1
Web links
- The text online in the Internet Archive (pp. 170–241 in Paul Heyse, Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 17: Novellen VIII. Wilhelm Hertz , Berlin 1885)
- Entries in WorldCat