The facts in the Waldemar case

Illustration by Harry Clarke (1889–1931), published 1919

Illustration from "Amazing Stories" magazine published April 1926

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (in the English original The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar ) is a short story of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe , published in December 1845, the hoax . Only later did the author announce that the document that appeared as an article in a magazine was pure fiction .

The short story narrator hypnotizes a dying friend in order to observe the effect of animal magnetism on a person's dying body. The description of these effects makes up the bulk of the short story.

Summary

The narrator of the story presents the facts of the extraordinary case of Ernst Waldemar (in the original Ernest Valdemar ), which caused a sensation in the population. He is interested in animal magnetism (also known as mesmerism ) and is therefore aware of the fact that no person has ever been magnetized under hypnosis or during their death. He is considering trying to hypnotize a tuberculosis friend - Ernst Waldemar, a writer - as he did before, but this time at the time of his death.

Waldemar agrees and informs the narrator by letter that he will most likely die in twenty-four hours. His two doctors inform the narrator of Waldemar's poor condition. After Waldemar agrees to the experiment again, the narrator returns to the dying man's room the following night with two nurses and a medical student as witnesses. Again, and this time under the supervision of a witness, Waldemar declares that he would like to take part in the experiment and urges the narrator to hurry because he fears that it has been postponed for far too long. Waldemar is soon hypnotized and magnetized by so-called "lines", which are not described further, just as the two doctors of the terminally ill return to serve as further witnesses. In a trance , Waldemar describes how he would die; shortly afterwards that he was dead. The narrator leaves Waldemar in this state for seven months, but visits him daily. During this time Waldemar has neither a pulse nor a heartbeat or noticeable breath. His skin is cold and pale.

After this time has passed, the narrator tries to wake Waldemar up again. He asks him questions that can only be answered with great difficulty; his voice seems to come from his swollen, black tongue. Between trance and insomnia , Waldemars tongue asks to put him back to sleep or wake him up as quickly as possible. When his voice repeats "dead - dead", the narrator frees him from his trance, but this has the consequence that Waldemar's body collapses in a flash and leaves behind a "disgusting, smelly mass".

German translations (selection)

approx. 1890: Alfred Mürenberg : Facts about the magnetization of Mr. Waldemar. Spemann, Stuttgart.
1901: Hedda Moeller and Hedwig Lachmann : The Valdemar case. JCC Bruns, Minden.
1910: Gisela Etzel : The facts in the Waldemar case. Propylaen Verlag, Munich.
1912: unknown translator: The amazing effects of mesmerism on a dying person. Kiepenheuer, Weimar.
1922: Gisela Etzel : The facts in the Waldemar case. Propylaea, Munich.
1922: Hans Kauders : The real facts in the Valdemar case. Rösl & Cie., Munich.
1923: Wilhelm Cremer : Report on the Valdemar case. Verlag der Schiller-Buchhandlung, Berlin.
ca.1925 : Bernhard Bernson : The Waldemar case. Josef Singer Verlag, Strasbourg.

1925: unknown translator: report on the Waldemar case. Mieth, Berlin.

around 1930: Fanny Fitting : The Facts in the Valdemar Case. Fikentscher, Leipzig.

1945: Marlies Wettstein : The Waldemar case. Artemis, Zurich.

1947: Wolf Durian : The facts in the Waldemar case. Ullstein, Vienna.

1953: Richard Mummendey : The Facts in the Valdemar Case. Hundt, Hattingen.

1955: Arthur Seiffart : The facts in the case of M. Valdemar. Tauchnitz Verlag, Stuttgart.

1966: Hans Wollschläger : The facts in the Valdemar case. Walter Verlag, Freiburg i. Br.

1989: Stefanie Kuhn-Werner : The facts in the Valdemar case. Reclams Universal Library, Stuttgart.

1989: Heide Steiner : The facts in the Valdemar case. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig.

2017: Andreas Nohl : The facts in the case of M. Valdemar. dtv, Munich.

literature

Roland Barthes : Text analysis of a story by Edgar Allan Poe , in: Das semiologische Abenteuer (orig .: L'aventure sémiologique , translated from French by Dieter Hornig), edition suhrkamp, Frankfurt 1988, ISBN 978-3-518-11441-7 , Pp. 266-298.

Web links

Wikisource: The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar - Sources and full texts (English)

The facts in the Waldemar case at Zeno.org .


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