Klara Militsch
Klara Militsch (After Death) - Russian original title: Клара Милич (После смерти) - is a novel written in 1882 by the Russian writer Ivan Turgenew .
backgrounds
First of all, the work should be called "After Death" (Russian После смерти). Because the author ultimately considered this title to be too spiritistic , it was changed to the name of the main actor before publication and sometimes appears with the addition of the originally intended title.
Turgenev got the idea for this story after the tragic suicide of the opera singer Eulalia Kadmina , who in 1881, out of disappointed love, put an end to her life by taking a poison cocktail at a public appearance.
content
The very withdrawn Jakow Aratow and the singer Klara Militsch fall in love. But he does not want to admit his love and rejects it.
Months later he reads in an older newspaper edition that the singer died after taking poison. The newspaper article cites rumors of unrequited love as the reason for the suicide . Only now does Aratow realize how much he was in love with Klara and he makes serious accusations for having rejected her at the time.
From now on he falls more and more under her spell and travels the next day to Kazan , where Klara lived and caused her death. He learns from her sister who lives there that Klara once used to say that she will never find the man she is looking for, but that she does not want someone else. When her sister asked what if she did find him, Klara replied: “If I find him, I'll take him.” And when the sister asked what if this man wasn't interested in her Klara replied: “Then I'll take my own life, then I'm no good.” And her sister goes on to explain: “You see, she was destined to be unhappy. She was convinced of it from the earliest childhood. 'If I can't live the way I want, I don't want to live at all,' she used to say. 'Our life is in our hands.' And she proved it too. "
Shaken, Aratov travels home, where he is now literally in the "power" of another being. He feels Klara near him and can finally recognize her. His longing to be with her becomes so great that he longs for his death: "Only in this way and there will I be happy, as I was never happy in my life and how she was never happy."
In the next few days he becomes increasingly "insane", speaks of a consummate marriage and falls into delirium . The face of the dying shines with a blissful smile.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Book Description at amazon (accessed on April 21, 2020)
- ↑ Book Description at buecher.de (accessed on April 21, 2020)