Novel No. 7 / I. Slunj waterfalls
The Slunj Waterfalls (or Novel No. 7 / I. The Slunj Waterfalls ) is a 1963 novel by Heimito von Doderer and the last novel the author was able to complete. The Slunj waterfalls were originally planned as the first part of a romantic tetralogy with the working title Novel No.7 . However, the second part of novel No. 7 / II: The Grenzwald unfinished and appeared posthumously as a fragment in 1967 .
content
At the center of the novel is the Clayton family, especially father and son (Robert and Donald Clayton). The Claytons are British industrialists who, in addition to their main plant in Great Britain, open a branch in Vienna and settle there. Your villa is located in the Pratercottage . The novel extends over a longer period of time and begins with the honeymoon of Robert and Harriet Clayton (1877), but also accompanies the later life of the son Donald. The eponymous waterfalls of Slunj ( Rastoke), which the Clayton couple visited on their honeymoon, elegantly form the framework for the novel. In addition to the Clayton family, there are a number of characters in the novel whose fate is in one way or another interwoven with that of the Claytons, and whose life is at least partially followed up. The characters come from the most varied of social classes, whereby Doderer draws a kaleidoscope of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy: a group of upper-class schoolchildren founds a “ Metternich Club”, two suburban prostitutes save a child from drowning and thus find their way onto a Hungarian one Well, the stepson of a caretaker becomes a postmaster in Croatia, a natural history of the Viennese caretakers is explained, the accountant Chwostik, who once lived modestly between two prostitutes, is a stroke of luck for the Clayton company and grows far beyond herself, the engineer Monica Bachler changes both the lives of Donald and Robert Clayton to name a few. All threads always come together with the Claytons.
style
Although the author retreats a little more from the demons or the Strudlhofstiege in his late work, the Slunj waterfalls are also characterized by a large number of people and, in terms of narrative, by different time leaps. Here, too, the lovingly ironic way with which Doderer draws his characters, coupled with psychological profundity and subtle humor, is decisive for the work. As Eva Menasse said in relation to the Slunj waterfalls , Doderer is still an underrated writer on the humor level.
Individual evidence
- ^ A globe of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . In: Zeit Online . ( zeit.de [accessed on December 2, 2018]).
- ^ Heimito von Doderer: The waterfalls of Slunj - litteratur.ch. Accessed December 2, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Eva Menasse on Heimito von Doderer: "A master of the great novel" . In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur . July 20, 2016 ( deutschlandfunkkultur.de [accessed December 2, 2018]).