Timm Thaler or The Laughing Soldier (novel)
Timm Thaler or The Laughing Soldier is a 1962 novel by the German author James Krüss .
content
Framework story
The I -Erzähler Boy (in his biographical data identical to the author James Krüss) hits shortly after the Second World War in a printing plant in Leipzig adult Timm Thaler, who told him on several evenings the story of his childhood. A man, whom Boy had met under mysterious circumstances on the train on his trip to Leipzig, meets with Boy again and tries to bribe him not to write the story down; the first-person narrator, however, rejects the request, pointing out that writing is more important to him than money. It later turns out that the mysterious man plays an important role in Timm's story. The first-person narrator remarks that his story reminded him of “ Peter Schlemihl ” by Adelbert von Chamisso .
Timm Thaler's story
Timm Thaler is an orphan boy who lived with his stepmother and stepbrother in a central German city in the 1920s . He has very happy memories of his father, who was killed in a construction site accident in Timm's fourth year of school; among other things, it connects it with the local racecourse . Bullied by his stepbrother and driven by nostalgic feelings, he goes there again and meets the Baron Lefuet ("devil" backwards). In the following weeks he gets closer and closer to him and finally buys his laughter from him by contract against the tempting ability to win every bet .
Timm uses his abilities, but only realizes late how much his laugh means to him and tries to get it back. In order to track down the baron, who has gone into hiding since the signing of the contract, he leaves his hometown for Hamburg , as he had previously wanted to go to sea. He is hired as a steward on the cargo liner Delphin , which has its destination in Genoa . In search of his laughter, he climbs into increasingly ludicrous bets in the hope that one day he will lose a bet and thereby regain his laughter, since in this case the contract would have been void. He soon realizes, however, that his opponent has at least extraordinary abilities and seems to have knowledge of Timm's plans in a mysterious way, and he also has to adhere to the gag paragraph, which forbids him to talk about his lost laugh or his ability to win bets speak. Fortunately for him, he found friends on the way, first and foremost the mysterious Kreschimir , who is also in contractual relationship with the baron, is familiar with his "diabolical" methods and goals and thus gradually guesses Timm's contract.
In the constant hope of losing, Timm finally bets to be richer than the baron. Thereupon he fakes his own death, appoints Timm as his universal heir and in turn assumes the identity of his alleged twin brother, who now acts as Timm's guardian. As a result, Timm finally comes under the direct influence of the baron, who also wants to prevent him from trying to regain his laughter. When he is separated from his previous friends, after a few mistakes and with the help of a disloyal business partner of the baron, they finally manage to team up, outsmart the baron, free Timm from his clutches and help him to laugh again with an astonishingly simple solution .
In the end, the now grown-up Timm goes into business for himself with a puppet theater in Hamburg and has the most success with the story of the laughs sold , ultimately his own life story.
background
To clarify the "devilish" Krüss used the Ananym Lefuet for the name of the baron , which means devil when read backwards .
The book contains social and consumer criticism, especially in the descriptions of the social advancement of Timm's stepmother and capitalism as the religion of the baron. The “satanic” peculiarities of the baron and his cronies, such as the demon Behemoth disguised as Signor Grandizzi , appear more marginally ; nevertheless they are needed to explain the baron's sometimes supernatural abilities in the plot. On the other hand, there are positive descriptions of Timm's petty-bourgeois existence, of his friendship with shipping company director Rickert and his mother, with the seaman Jonny and with steward Kreschimir , who sold his eyes to the baron.
Other voices argue that Krüss draws Timm Thaler's psychogram as that of an abused child . Krüss wrote the drama of a boy who is made docile by an adult.
Adaptations
There is a two-part radio play by Kurt Vethake that was published by Zebra-Verlag.
The novel was adapted in 1979 for the 13-part television series Timm Thaler . The title character played Thomas Ohrner , the Baron Horst Frank . The series was the first of 16 Christmas series of ZDF . In 1981, the novel was published in the Soviet Union as a two-part feature film under the title The Laughing Soldier. In 2002, the 26-part German cartoon series Timm Thaler was published.
In 2009 Grażyna Kania staged the theater adaptation Timm Thaler or the sold laugh at the Theater an der Parkaue in Berlin .
In 2017, Timm Thaler or laughter sold under the direction of Andreas Dresen , with Arved Friese in the leading role and Justus von Dohnányi as Timm's opponent.
Timm Thaler / Lefuet / Boy in other novels by James Krüss
In 1977 Krüss wrote a continuation of his novel under the title Timm Thalers Puppen , in which another encounter between Boy , the adult Timm Thaler, his son Krescho and the Baron is described.
In 1986 another sequel appeared under the title Nele or Das Wunderkind , which takes place in Hamburg in the 1950s. Nele, a childlike friend of Boy , is made into a great singer by Lefuet, but is never allowed to cry in return. Boy calls in Timm Thaler to help her .
Timm Thaler is also a character in the stories from Aunt Julie's house , which were written in the early 1970s. Here Krüss describes the first encounter between the young boy and Timm in the 1930s on Heligoland. When they split up, Timm Thaler Boy promises that one day he will tell him his life story.
Lefuet also makes a brief appearance in Friends of Lobster Cliffs , a story also told by Boy .
Boy is also the narrator (or narrator of the background story) in several other books by Krüss, including The Happy Islands Behind the Wind .
All novels and stories about Timm Thaler, Boy , Lefuet and other characters were summarized and continued by Krüss in the 1970s as a cycle The stories of the 101 days .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The child who stopped laughing . Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, October 21, 2012
- ↑ Проданный смех. Russian film adaptation by Timm Thaler in the film database imdb.com. Retrieved October 31, 2018
- ↑ http://www.kindertheater.de/news-und-premieren/newsdetail/artikel/timm-thaler-oder-das-verkaufte-lachen-von-james-kruess-am-theater-an-der-parkaue-in -berlin.html
- ↑ http://www.parkaue.de/media/file/produktionen/91-ho_timm_thaler_hv.pdf
- ↑ Shooting for 'Timm Thaler' started in Halle In: Welt Online, November 4, 2015.