The people from the forest

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The people from the forest is a novel by Wilhelm Raabe , which was written from late 1861 to early 1863 and published in 1863 by Westermann in Braunschweig. Raabe experienced reprints in 1890, 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1906. In 1868 an edition in Dutch was published in Utrecht .

Robert Wolf, orphaned son of a forest ranger, goes his way. With his bride Helene Wienand, a banker's daughter, having returned home richly from America, he moves into the dilapidated Junkernest Poppenhof as the new master.

content

The childless Pastor Tanne, foster father of 16-year-old Robert Wolf, dies around 1843 in Poppenhagen in the Winzelwald. Robert has to go back to his real father, the poor forest ranger Wolf, in the forest hut Eulenbruch. When his biological father, a drinker, dies, the now 18-year-old Robert leaves the forest around 1845, goes to the unnamed large city and cuts parts of the home furnishings of 20-year-old Eva Dornbluth from Poppenhagen. The spurned lover is being held in the Central Police House for trespassing. The old police clerk Friedrich Fiebiger, a bachelor born in Poppenhagen in 1788, absolutely wants to raise the rascal. Among other things, at Fiebiger's instigation, Robert is dismissed. In the wild, the boy promptly ran into the carriage of the “pale shy” banker's daughter Helene Wienand, who was born around 1827.

Robert is staying at Musikantengasse 12 in the apartment of the police clerk. Fiebiger and two of his old Poppenhagener youth games from the neighborhood - these are Heinrich Ulex and the limping lady Juliane von Poppen - take on the education of the boy from the native forest. The "autodidactic stargazer" Ulex leads Robert to university entrance qualification. Juliane von Poppen is the foster mother of the half-orphan Helene. Banker Wienand loses his house and his mind in a city fire. Robert falls in love with Helene. The inclination is reciprocated. Julian's nephew, the diplomat Baron Leon von Poppen, master of the ruined Poppenhof in the Winzelwald, has better cards than Robert. The "newly baked ministerial secretary" wants to gain the trust of the gradually recovering, vain banker with a nobility diploma and actually becomes Helene's potential bridegroom. In addition, the three old educators send their pupil Robert to the university to study pharmacy and medicine.

Friedrich Wolf, Roberts' older brother, returns home from the USA wealthy, fetches Eva Dornbluth, who is waiting for him, marries his childhood friend and supports the brother financially.

Eva wrote to Robert about the death of her brother. The terminally ill woman calls Robert to California. Helene sends Robert there. She wants to wait for him. From Hamburg, the "Teutonia" circumnavigates Cape Horn with Robert on board, lurching and rocking, and lands in San Francisco . Robert meets the dying Eva in Yuba County and finally buries the sister-in-law at his brother's side. The occasional gold digger Robert quickly finds what he is looking for, soon takes the overland route to New Orleans and returns to Hamburg. The banker at home in the big city has died and the diplomat did not survive a duel.

Quotes

  • "You can learn a lot in a long life, but often more in a few days, in a short moment."
  • "The greatest miracles take place in the greatest silence."

shape

The narrator titled the 21st of the 36 chapters with "highly tragic chapter". He is not afraid of pathos and pulls out all the narrative stops. So he suddenly makes the diplomat think verbatim. Black and white painting separates good and bad: a “sneering smile” flits over the “yellowish face” of the nasty diplomat.

Testimonials

Oppermann quotes a Raabe letter from the 1890s. In it, on the occasion of the 2nd edition, Raabe discusses the late “pulling out into the light of day” and advises against reading it.

On October 28, 1891, Raabe wrote to Sigmund Schott that the text would soon appear to him like a "literature chick with an eggshell on its head".

reception

Contemporaries:
  • Schreinert names a few reviews from 1863. Thaddäus Lau praised the drawing of Ulex and Juliane von Poppen. Robert Prutz complained about Raabe's “unstoppable and shapeless romanticism”. An anonymous reviewer in the “Wochenkronik” of “Europa” rebukes Raabe's “sovereign arbitrariness” with its “leaps and bounds” in the wake. The “informal description” appears to be a “ghost haunt”. Rudolf Sonnenburg missed the quiet lecture. The excessive thinking of some characters reduces the reading pleasure. The structure seems too complex to Ludwig Seeger . Hoefer, on the other hand, breathe a sigh of relief because Raabe has left the ancient world behind. Otto Banck attests to Raabe's productive imagination. This makes the author appear as a prolific writer. The text lacks harmony and balance. On the occasion of the second edition, a series of reviews appeared in 1890. The Berlin newspaper “Die Post” admires how Raabe ties the tangled threads of the plot together. Otto Preuss found the drawing of the people too blurred. According to Edmund Sträter, the protagonists have not been adequately examined in terms of moral aspects. Moritz Necker states that there was a lengthy ideological monologue by the author - spread over several people. The dominance of the odd old folks obscures the view of Robert Wolf's path. Benno Rüttenauer acknowledges Raabe's belief in the future.
Recent comments:
  • According to Schreinert, Raabe was inspired by " Wilhelm Meister " and " David Copperfield ".
  • The young Raabe was concerned with emigrating to North America. Raabe misunderstood the "Wilhelm Meister" and leaned on Sealsfield , Gerstäcker and Solger . Raabe still hold fast to Darwinism in “People from the Forest” . The accidental death of Eve was chalked up to the author by the reviewers. In future, Raabe let heroines live longer. Fuld picks out a single anti-Semitic passage.
  • Oppermann names a further leading work by Hubert Ohl (Heidelberg 1968). Meyen refers to Karl Ernst Knodt (Leipzig 1901), Richard Weitbrecht (Leipzig 1902), Eugen Wolff (Berlin 1902), Franz Branky (Vienna 1904), Wilhelm Brandes (Wolfenbüttel 1915), Paul Sommer (Leipzig 1927), Margarethe von Massow ( Berlin 1931), Otto Kohlmeyer ( Kronstadt 1936) and Wilhelm Fehse (Braunschweig 1937). Heinrich Bröker did his doctorate on the novel in Marburg in 1926 .

expenditure

First edition

  • “The people from the forest, their stars, ways and fates. A novel by Wilhelm Raabe. “884 pages. George Westermann, Braunschweig 1863

Used edition

  • The people from the forest. Your stars, ways and fates. A novel . With an appendix, written by Kurt Schreinert, pp. 429-530. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1971. Vol. 5 (2nd edition), without ISBN in Karl Hoppe (Ed.), Jost Schillemeit (Ed.), Hans Oppermann (Ed.), Kurt Schreinert (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe . Complete Works. Braunschweig edition . 24 vols.

Further editions

  • “The people from the forest, their stars, ways and fates. A novel by Wilhelm Raabe. "
    • 612 pages. Westermann, Braunschweig 1890 (2nd edition)
    • 612 pages. Westermann, Braunschweig 1901 (3rd edition)
    • 363 pages. Otto Janke, Berlin, 4th edition 1902, 5th edition 1903, 6th edition 1906, 7th edition 1910
    • 450 pages. Hermann Klemm, Berlin-Grunewald 1916, 1918 single edition for the field, 1922, 1926, 1931, 1934
    • 447 pages. Construction Verlag, Berlin 1954, 1962
    • 357 pages. Kaiser, Klagenfurt 1962

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The beginning of the action can be estimated from the information in the edition used on p. 88, 12. Zvo and p. 86, 8. Zvu.
  2. ↑ Raabe also writes “Capital” (used edition, p. 85, 5th Zvu) and probably means Berlin (used edition, p. 437, 10th Zvo).
  3. ↑ Towards the end of the novel, Fiebiger is called the father Roberts (edition used, p. 322).
  4. ↑ Towards the end of the novel, Juliane von Poppen is called Helene's mother (edition used, p. 322).
  5. ↑ The Panama Canal will not be navigable until 1914.
  6. ↑ The book belongs to his "youthful sins" and is not "worth reading".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ von Studnitz, p. 310, entry 21
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 431, 2nd Zvu
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 446 above
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 464
  5. ↑ "De Kinderen of Wouds" at Meyen, p 108, entry 641
  6. ↑ Edition used, Chapter 14
  7. ↑ Edition used, Chapter 14
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 243
  9. ↑ see for example the end of the 17th chapter
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 259, 19. Zvo
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 310, 7th Zvu
  12. ↑ Oppermann, p. 55, 13. Zvo
  13. ^ Fuld, p. 317, 6. Zvo
  14. ↑ quoted in Schreinert in the edition used, p. 456, 9. Zvu
  15. ↑ Edition used, pp. 447–462
  16. ↑ Edition used, p. 431 below
  17. ↑ Fuld, p. 21 below
  18. ↑ Fuld, p. 167 bottom center
  19. ↑ Fuld, p. 203, middle
  20. ↑ Fuld, p. 174 above
  21. ↑ Fuld, p. 180, 11. Zvo
  22. ↑ Edition used, p. 177 above
  23. ^ Oppermann, p. 150 and p. 154
  24. ↑ Meyen, pp. 360-361
  25. ↑ Meyen, p. 361, entry 3045
  26. ↑ Edition used, p. 464, entry B1
  27. ↑ Edition used, p. 464, entries from B2