The abused love letters

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The Abused Love Letters is a literary satire by Gottfried Keller from 1860. In October 1865 the text was preprinted in the " Deutsche Reichs-Zeitung " from Braunschweig . The story did not appear in book form until 1874 in the second part of the series of novels The People of Seldwyla at Göschen in Stuttgart.

According to Böning, the humoresque can be described briefly. Two men correspond. Everyone thinks the other is a woman.

action

Victor Störteler - Viggi for short - runs a profitable freight forwarding and goods business in Seldwyla. His wife Gritli, "a pretty, healthy and good-natured female", brought a considerable fortune from abroad into the marriage. In addition to his job, Viggi worked under the pseudonym Kurt von Walde, first unsuccessfully as an "essayist", then with some success as a writer of novels. As a business traveler, he occasionally meets other would-be writers in Germany . A former “colleague” judges these “bad scribes”: “Although they are the most intolerable and hateful people in the world, they still have an insurmountable tendency to band together ...” These gentlemen usually have no material. This is how the “smearers” write about writing itself. For example, the job title of writer is not good enough for them and should be replaced by writer, Dinterich, Buchner, pen artist or bookmaster. Viggi also wants to turn his wife into a book scholar. The Gritli secretly throws the books she is supposed to study into a corner. As a simple bourgeois girl, she married a merchant and not an esthete. Viggi disagrees and prevails. During his next business trip, he writes his wife one love letter after another. Gritli has to answer everyone. The uncomplicated woman sees herself incapable and, with the best will in the world, does not find a suitable response to the drivel of "kissing stars" and the "original affirmation". In her need, she transcribes letter by letter from her Viggi and sends these copies, carefully transcribed in the tone of a loving woman, to her neighbor, the 23-year-old sub-teacher Wilhelm. Because of poverty, Wilhelm doesn't dare to approach a woman, but immediately falls in love with Gritli. This receives love letter after love letter via the garden hedge and also copies the products from the pen of the schoolmaster. The recipient Viggi is completely amazed and delighted. Dinterich can hardly believe it - he misunderstood his dear wife so much. He enthusiastically extends his trip by fourteen days so that a useful - that is, to be published - correspondence can arise. During these two weeks he enjoys himself in a foreign country with one girl after the other and at the same time makes some good business deals in straw goods. Viggi already has the subtitle for his next publication: “Letters from two contemporaries”. The simple is always the best.

Wilhelm is frightened. The new lover has a husband! Gritli consoles the extremely shy Wilhelm. It is a joke. He should just keep playing and it shouldn't be his shame. The teacher holds out without complaint. Sometimes Gritli's heart pounds when she copies Wilhelm's words of love.

On the way home the business traveler happened to come across Gritli's letters to Wilhelm. He recognized his style and chased his wife, the "fanatic with a smooth face and a hollow head", out of the house. The parentless Gritli is staying with a well-meaning old aunt in Seldwyla.

When Gritli did not knock remorsefully at Viggi even after a few days, the deeply offended husband applied for a divorce. In court, he speaks out against his wife, this "goose with vulture claws". Goose with vulture claws - what expressions the Dinterich comes up with! He is just surprised that something like this never occurs to him when he writes.

Gritli doesn’t mince words in her reply to the judge. She too no longer wants to live with her husband. This argument - concerning the long letters in a twisted language - is not a case for a marriage court, but for a literary court.

The judge separates the couple and takes the side of the wife. Viggi has to surrender all the assets that Gritli brought into the marriage.

The vain Viggi already has a new wife who comforts him eloquently and emotionally. The 37-year-old maid Käthchen Ambach - in short: Kätter - likes to write letters, superficially studies Viggi’s literary effusions and speaks to the new husband in front of the Seldwylers. Kätter, a stately, though somewhat short-legged lady with a pronounced chin area, did not bring any fortune with her. Together with her lust for pleasure and her healthy appetite, Kätter's financial weakness is one of the causes of Viggi’s unstoppable ruin. The Seldwylers can hardly hide outbursts of amusement at the strange literary couple.

Gritli lives withdrawn with her aunt. The city pastor is Wilhelm's obvious godlessness - the teacher stays away from the service - a thorn in the side. The clergyman enforces the suspension of Wilhelm from school service. Wilhelm now wants to follow in the footsteps of his deceased peasant parents. He takes over the management of a vineyard above Seldwyla. In the owner of the vineyard, a cloth shearer, the skillful, hard-working Wilhelm finds an understanding supporter. The new winemaker lives as a hermit in the vineyard belonging to the vineyard. He has set himself up to his taste. The farmers in the area consider him to be something of a saint and occasionally seek his advice.

Reluctantly, Gritli finds the way to the reclusive recluse who still loves her. When she finally stepped bravely into the vineyard, she takes heart: “I wanted to ask you whether you are still angry with me about the story with the love letters?” When Wilhelm says no, Gritli adds: “I thought in my heart that for that my person as she is should be yours forever when the time comes! And here I am! ”The happy ending follows immediately. Gottfried Keller writes: "Now at last he wrapped around her, covered her with kisses that were getting better every second, and she kept quiet for him and found that she hadn't known much about love either." The couple marries and gets Children.

Viggy and his immoderate cattle are meanwhile "long forgotten and lost".

reception

Statements from the 19th century

  • Auerbach (review of June 10, 1875 in the " Deutsche Rundschau ") notes "a certain violence in the substructure".
  • Gottfried Keller could have taken Adolf Widmann (1818–1878) as a model for Viggi. The circles in which Viggi frequented on his travels to Germany (see above) probably refer to the " Young Germanic Society " in 1859.

Recent comments

  • Schilling takes Seldwyla as a model for Swiss society in the mid-19th century. While the Seldwyler, i.e. Viggi and Kätter, fail, the outsiders, i.e. Gritli and Wilhelm, go their own way.
  • Selbmann looks at Gritli's daring writing technique. In her letters to the two men, the young woman only had to "reverse polarity" the "gender signals" from the respective letter template. Gritli actually abuses Wilhelm exactly as she is abused by Viggi. Selbmann sees the young teacher as a "descendant of Wilhelm Meister ". By interweaving the story of the Celt's grave twice, Gottfried Keller allowed a look into his poet's workshop. As a Swiss, Gottfried Keller never let the economic foundation out of sight when writing. For example, the question of the financial potential of a character is definitely relevant for understanding the course of action.

Film adaptations

literature

First edition

  • The abused love letters. In: The people of Seldwyla. Stories by Gottfried Keller. Second increased edition in four volumes. GJ Göschen'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1874

Used edition

  • The abused love letters. P. 364–437 in: Thomas Böning (Ed.): Gottfried Keller. The people of Seldwyla. German classic publisher in paperback. Volume 10, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-618-68010-4 (corresponds to "Gottfried Keller, all works in seven volumes" (at the same place of publication by the same editor))

School expenses

  • The abused love letters. Novella. With an afterword by Karl Pörnbacher. Reclam, Stuttgart 1989 [first 1968, with references]. ISBN 3-15-006176-8
  • The abused love letters . In: Gottfried Keller: The people of Seldwyla. Stories. Edited by Bernd Neumann. Reclam, Stuttgart 1993, pp. 357-430 (text), 627-633 (notes), 647-651 (references). ISBN 3-15-006179-2

Secondary literature

  • The beyond of Seldwylas - The abused love letters. P. 129–130 in: Diana Schilling: Keller's Prosa. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-631-34190-3 . At the same time dissertation from the University of Münster (Westphalia) in 1996
  • Vampires of literature. The abused love letters. P. 86–90 in: Rolf Selbmann: Gottfried Keller. Novels and short stories. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2001 (Klassiker-Lektüren Vol. 6), ISBN 3-503-06109-6

Web links

Remarks

  1. Gottfried Keller had already sent the manuscript to Vieweg in Braunschweig on February 13, 1860 (edition used, p. 624, 13. Zvo) . Gottfried Keller only found out about Vieweg's preprint in the “Deutsche Reichszeitung” in 1865 in 1871 (edition used, p. 625 above). After the author had canceled the contract with Vieweg and went to Göschen on March 5, 1873 (edition used, p. 626, 13th Zvo), the novella later appeared there in Stuttgart.
  2. Gottfried Keller writes "Dinte" instead of ink.
  3. "The walls were covered with mossy tree bark, with ammonium horns , bird nests, shiny quartz, the ceiling with wonderfully grown tree branches and roots, and all kinds of forest fruits, pine cones, blue and red berry tufts hung in between. The windows were wonderfully frozen; Each of the round glasses showed a different picture, a landscape, a flower, a slender group of trees, a star or a silver damask fabric ... "(Edition used, p. 421, 30. Zvo)
  4. “... an elevation in the middle of the forest, which [Wilhelm] appeared suspicious to him and which he dug up, revealing the grave of a Celtic warrior. A long skeleton with jewelry and weapons appeared before his eyes. But he carefully rebuilt the grave without telling anyone about it, because he did not want to step out of its hiding place. In the meantime he searched the forest attentively, discovered several such elevations with stones scattered on them, and reserved the right to report them later. He added the jewelry and weapons he found to the oddities of his hermitage. ”(Edition used, p. 414, 9. Zvo)

Individual evidence

  1. Böning in the edition used, p. 625, 3. Zvo and p. 665 below, Sigel B1 (number rotator 1856 (correct is 1865))
  2. Edition used, p. 666 middle, Sigel B
  3. ^ Böning in the edition used, p. 645 middle
  4. Edition used, p. 365, 8. Zvo
  5. Edition used, p. 369, 26. Zvo
  6. Edition used, p. 435, 10. Zvo
  7. Edition used, p. 435, 25. Zvo
  8. Edition used, p. 436, 13. Zvo
  9. Auerbach, quoted in Böning in the edition used, p. 642, 1. Zvu
  10. Böning in the edition used, p. 778, 1. Zvo
  11. Schilling, p. 129
  12. Selbmann, p. 87, 10th Zvu
  13. Selbmann, p. 88, 6th Zvu
  14. Selbmann, p. 89, 4. Zvo
  15. Selbmann, p. 89, 17th Zvu
  16. Selbmann, p. 90, 4. Zvo
  17. Edition used, textual delivery, p. 666 middle, Sigel B