Fra Celeste

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Fra Celeste , first edition 1899

Fra Celeste is a short story by Ricarda Huch that was published by Hermann Haessel in Leipzig in 1899 . In addition to the eponymous story, the anthology also contains the stories The poor Heinrich , The end of the world and The May meadow .

The Catholic moral preacher Dolfin alias Fra Celeste resolves the irreconcilable contradiction between celibacy and the resurgence of violent inclination to his childhood sweetheart Aglaia with murder ("as one must suspect" writes Sprengel) and suicide. Ricarda Huch invented Dolfin or Fra Celeste, which reminds of CF Meyer 's saints written twenty years earlier .

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The orphan Dolfin, a baker's apprentice, had become a monk out of a heartache and, under his abbot, rose to become the sought-after preacher Fra Celeste.

The 23-year-old first-person narrator works as the secretary of the "famous and adored" penitential preacher Fra Celeste. This adoration is expressed in numerous letter inquiries from the pen of women who feel addressed by Fra Celeste's verbal power. So the narrator does not become unemployed. Although the preacher always looks over his shoulder to check his correspondence, the clerk can answer at his own discretion.

One of these letters overloaded with emotions is sent by the “fine, slim”, aristocratic Aglaia. Their only child died early. She would like to leave her husband and return to Dolfin, whom she met and loved when she was eighteen.

Aglaia runs away from her husband and joins the itinerant preacher Fra Celeste. Suddenly he needs a lot of money to keep the lady traveling with him. The abbot does not participate, but Cardinal San Fiori from the papal environment finds a solution. The narrator lies to the church superiors about the use of the money.

Some of Fra Celeste's sermons are astonishing. For example, he encourages his audience to overcome earthly love that only wants to possess. Rather, man must have had enough with himself and God .

Aglaia's marriage to the count's husband is divorced. The first-person narrator can no longer hide it from his master - the cardinal has fallen in love with Aglaia. Fra Celeste gets the vicious cough; spits blood.

Aglaia kisses the narrator on the mouth when he can tell her about a recovering Fra Celeste. When the beloved became seriously ill, the healthy preacher went to see her less and less and soon no longer at all. When the first-person narrator asks his master about the cause of the strange behavior, the latter replies abruptly that he no longer loves Aglaia. Fra Celeste later explains to his servant why he no longer loves Aglaia; namely from the knowledge of life that nothing on earth can be ours. Nevertheless, the preacher goes to the beloved's sick bed and says: “I didn't love you anymore? I want to love you forever, forever, forever, just don't leave me! Do not die!"

The doctor can no longer help Aglaia. Fra Celeste most likely stabs her lover and throws herself into the sea.

Self-testimony

Ricarda Huch wrote from Trieste on June 1, 1899 : “I work a lot. I sent the sequels of Fra Celeste to Frieda Duensing . "

shape

The first-person narrator anticipates; tells, for example, about Aglaia's "terrible terminal illness".

Amusement excited: the secretary answering letters from distinguished ladies temporarily assumes the identity of his master.

Book editions

First edition

  • Ricarda Yikes. Fra Celeste and other stories ( also contains: Poor Heinrich. The end of the world . The May meadow) . H. Haessel, Leipzig 1899

Other issues

  • Ricarda Huch: The Gold Island and other stories. Selected and provided with an afterword by Wolfgang Brekle (contains: The Gold Island . The Huguenot . Devils . Patatini . Fra celeste. The end of the world. The Jewish grave . The last summer ). Union Verlag, Berlin 1972 (Licensor: Atlantis Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau and Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main), 376 pages (edition used)

literature

  • Marie Baum : Shining lead. The life of Ricarda Huch. 520 pages. Rainer Wunderlich Verlag Hermann Leins , Tübingen and Stuttgart 1950 (6th – 11th thousand)
  • Helene Baumgarten: Ricarda Huch. About her life and work . 236 pages. Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1964
  • 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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Baumgarten, p. 230, 3rd entry above and Baum, p. 517, 3rd entry above
  2. ^ Sprengel, p. 397, 3rd Zvu
  3. ↑ Baumgarten, p. 98, 11. Zvu
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 208, 4. Zvo
  5. ↑ Ricarda Huch, quoted in Baum, p. 108, 13. Zvo
  6. ↑ Copy from 1899, Zurich Central Library