A secret (Wilhelm Raabe)

A secret is a historical novella by Wilhelm Raabe , which was written in the early summer of 1860 and appeared in Westermann's monthly magazine that same year . In 1862 the text was in the “Tangled Life” collection at Carl Flemming's in Glogau . Raabe experienced reprints in 1896, 1901 and 1905. Meyen names three reviews from the years 1863 to 1949. In quoting Raabe's sources, Hoppe refers to a discovery made by the researcher Wolfgang Schlegel, Kaiserslautern, in 1949.

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In Paris from 1692 to 1704: Claude Bullot, host of the Dauphinswagen in Quincampoix alley, sometimes had a loud argument with his marriageable daughter. When Karl d'Albert, Duke of Chaulnes , had to overhear the bickering , he called his former valet Stefano Vinacche from among the crowd. At the Duke's behest, Stefano has to marry the contentious Mademoiselle Bullot against his will. The lovely girl is also against this marriage. It does not help. As the former mistress of the Duke of Chaulnes, she becomes Vinacche's wife. After the young woman had a small son, to the astonishment of Grandfather Bullot, she stopped fighting.

Young Stefano had come to Paris from Italy in 1689 as the Duke's lackey. Meanwhile impoverished, he quartered himself in his father-in-law's inn. Father Bullot had also been against the daughter's marriage to the homeless vagabond. Stefano teaches all doubters better. In Paris, the Italian becomes one of the richest men.

Stefano Vinacche had stayed in Brittany for almost half a year and returned to Paris as a gold maker. In 1700 the Neapolitan chemist had found the secret formula for the projection powder for the production of gold. Its wealth does not remain hidden.

Louis XIV needs a lot of money. His mistress, the Marquise of Maintenon , advised the ruler in 1703 that Monsieur d'Argenson should squeeze the secret out of the Italian. The king reluctantly approves the proposal. D'Arguson puts Stefano in the Bastille . The prisoner does not reveal a single word. On March 20, 1704, the gold maker cuts his throat in his cell and takes the secret with him to the grave.

The widow Madame Vinacche is allowed to keep her considerable property. The brother of the Marquise of Maintenon accuses his sister of clumsiness in choosing the tool d'Arguson. The brother is convinced that he would have learned the secret with his intelligent means.

expenditure

First edition

• Tangled life. Novellas and sketches by Wilhelm Raabe. 263 pages. Carl Flemming, Glogau 1862 ( The old university . The Junker von Denow . From the book of life of the schoolmaster Michel Haas . Who can turn it around? A secret)

Used edition

• A secret. Life picture from the days of Louis XIV. Pp. 347–374. With an appendix, written by Karl Hoppe , pp. 506–515 in Karl Hoppe (arrangement), Hans Oppermann ( arrangement ): Der heilige Born . A secret. On a dark ground . The black galley Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005. Vol. 3 (2nd edition, obtained from Eberhard Rohse ), ISBN 3-525-20107-9 in Hoppe (ed.), Jost Schillemeit (ed.), Hans Oppermann ( Ed.), Kurt Schreinert (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe. Complete Works. Braunschweig edition. 24 vols.

literature

• Fritz Meyen : Wilhelm Raabe. Bibliography. 438 pages. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1973 (2nd edition). Supplementary volume 1, ISBN 3-525-20144-3 in Karl Hoppe (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe. Complete Works. Braunschweig edition . 24 vols.
• Cecilia von Studnitz : Wilhelm Raabe. Writer. A biography. 346 pages. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-7700-0778-6

Individual evidence

1. ↑ von Studnitz, p. 309, entry 13
2. ↑ Edition used, p. 506
3. ↑ Meyen, p. 338
4. ↑ Hoppe in the edition used, p. 506 and p. 515 below
5. ↑ Meyen, p. 19