Mäeküla piimamees
Mäeküla piimamees ( The Milkman of Mäeküla ) is the title of a novel by the Estonian writer Eduard Vilde (1865–1933). It was published in the Estonian-language original in 1916 .
Appear
Eduard Vilde wrote the novel while in exile in Copenhagen . With the revolution of 1905 the socialist Vilde had to leave Estonia because he was one of the opponents of the tsar. He was only able to return to his homeland in 1917.
The manuscript of Mäeküla piimamees arrived in Estonia in January 1916 and was published in Tallinn just four months later, in April 1916 . The first edition of the novel has 247 pages. The Estonian artist Oskar Kallis designed the cover .
Like all of Vilde's novels, the work met with a largely positive response in his homeland and was widely read. Mäeküla piimamees was Vilde's last novel.
The work also found a wide readership during and after the Soviet Union. The book was and is often dealt with in school lessons.
Further editions of the novel followed in 1922, 1935, 1947, 1948, 1955, 1960, 1970, 1974, 2000, 2006 and 2011.
action
Rural Estonia, around the second half of the 19th century. The young Mari is married to the Estonian farmer Tõnu Prillup, her sister's widowed husband. That is what convention says. Marriage ripples away; Mari is a good stepmother to Tõnu's children.
The aging Baltic German nobleman Ulrich von Kremer has his eye on the pretty Mari. Due to the traditional class barriers, of course, he cannot take Mari as his wife. But proposes a pact to his farmer Tõnu: Mari should become Ulrich's lover. In return, Tõnu receives the economically viable position of a dairy farmer.
Tõnu, who apparently cares little about his second wife emotionally and sees the prospect of economic gain, agrees. For a long time he has been looking enviously at the previous milkman Kuru Jaan. At first Mari is not very enthusiastic about the immoral request, but Tõnu pushes her into the business with his persuasion and all sorts of tricks. Finally Mari gives in - she becomes Ulrich's lover. As promised, Tõnu gets the job as a milkman. His rival Kuru Jaan is sacked. He goes about his new job with satisfaction. But Mari also takes a liking to the gifts of the noble lord and enjoys city life.
Over time, Tõnu developed more and more feelings of jealousy. He is suddenly ashamed of his immoral agreement with Ulrich von Kremer. Tõnu's business is no longer doing so well either. He speaks more and more of alcohol. But all attempts to stop Mari's amorous trips to Ulrich fail. Mari refers to the contract that she has to keep ... However, she has also developed serious feelings for the blacksmith Juhan.
The drunk Tõnu dies on a harsh winter night. And in the end Mari rejects all suitors, including Juhan. She leaves Ulrich to start a free life in the city with a self-determined husband.
Protagonists
Eduard Vilde describes prototypes of Estonian life in the late 19th century in his psychological-realistic novel. The simple farmer Tõnu seems to have little use for emotions, love and loyalty. For him, the material things in life are crucial. Envy of the supposedly richer neighbor, the nobleman's milkman, is a strong driving force behind his actions. In the confusion of his feelings after Mari's relationship with Ulrich, he reaches for schnapps when the situation overwhelms him. This is the only way he can find a way out of his grief - and in the end he perishes pitifully.
The elderly bachelor Ulrich von Kremer already belongs to a generation of Baltic Germans that is in decline. The old privileges he clings to don't matter much in the world. But neither is he the evil feudal lord that some Baltic Germans are portrayed as in Estonian literature. He shows human traits and tries to ensnare the Estonian farm girl Mari with charm and gifts. Actually, he is rather sluggish and weak-willed. Despite his loneliness, he does not manage to find a suitable woman to marry.
Mari is the central character in the novel. The closed young woman shows a lot of stubbornness and does not allow herself to be looked at in her plans. It is true that she accepts the immoral deal between her two masters. In the end, however, it maintains strength, independence and self-determination. You manage to break out of existing constraints and start a life of your own. She has therefore often been compared to Henrik Ibsen's Nora from the play A Doll's House (1879).
As in most of Vilde's works, dealing with Estonian history and the psyche of the Estonians plays a major role. Vilde's lifelong commitment to women's emancipation also comes into play in the work.
He owes the successful descriptions of Estonian rural life and residents not least to his origins. His parents were servants in a Baltic German manor house. The location of the novel, the fictional Mäeküla, is easy to recognize as Vilde's home. But the focus is on the thoughts and feelings of the three main characters of the novel. The real strength of the work is the subtle and realistic depiction of the soul life of all characters in the novel.
Edits
The novel was made into a film by the Soviet-Estonian film company Tallinnfilm in 1965 .
Translations are available in the following languages:
- Finnish: Mäenkylän maitomies (1920)
- Hungarian: A Hegyfalvi tejesember (1933)
- Latvian: Kalnaciema piena vedējs (1963)
- Lithuanian: Meikiulos pienininkas (1965)
- Russian: Молочник из Мяэкюлы (1965)
- Hungarian: Aki eladta a feleségét (1967)
- English: Milkman of the Manor (1976)
- Esperanto: Laktisto de Mäeküla (1983)
- Portuguese: O leiteiro de Mäeküla (2004)
There is currently no translation into German.
Quotes
- Mari: "I want to live like a sparrow in the city, not like a canary."
literature
- Cornelius Hasselblatt : History of Estonian Literature. Berlin, New York 2006 ( ISBN 3-11-018025-1 ), p. 343f.
- Armin Hetzer : Estonian literature. A historical overview. Wiesbaden 2006 ( ISBN 978-3-447-05466-9 ), p. 88f.
Web links
- Synopsis and text analysis (Estonian)
Individual evidence
Külmale maale (1896) | Raudsed käed (1898) | Mahtra sõda (1902) | Kui Anija mehed Tallinna's käisid (1903) | Prohvet Maltsvet (1905-1908) | Mäeküla piimamees (1916)