Titan (Jean Paul)

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First print (title page and contemporary covers)

Titan , published in four volumes between 1800 and 1803, is a novel by Jean Paul .

The capital novel

Jean Paul called the Titan his "cardinal and capital novel". The novel has around 900 pages and tells the educational story of the hero Albano de Cesara from a passionate youth to a mature man. In terms of language and style, the novel deviates noticeably from other texts by Jean Paul. The narrative is more streamlined with fewer digressions and marginal notes. Research often saw this as a (stylistic) approach to Weimar's classicism , which Jean Paul dealt intensively and critically with at this time. Jean Paul's language, rich in images and allusions (in the sense of the time), is also retained in Titan ; the novel is still challenging read for today's readers.

action

Preliminary remark

The action of the novel takes place in the 18th century at the beginning of its last decade. It is divided into three parts: in four volumes, 35 Jobel periods and 146 cycles (Reimer's complete edition of 1827, from which the following literal quotations are taken, divides the novel into five volumes).

In the 9th cycle, Jean Paul explains the term Jobel period: It is derived from the Jewish Jubilee year ( Lev 25.8  EU ). Accordingly, in Jean Paul's Jobel periods the reader should not have to work, “but only have to reap and rest; because I am the only one who stands at the desk as a [...] fanatic ... " . Then he writes about the cycle: "A cycle - which is the subject of my second name explanation - does not need any [explanation]."

First volume (1st to 9th Jobel period, 1st to 52nd cycle)

Prehistory: Albano de Cesara (Jean Paul calls him "Zesara" from the 4th cycle ), son of the Spanish count and knight of the Golden Fleece Don Gaspard de Cesara , lived with his mother and sister in the Palazzo Borromeo on Isola Bella until his third birthday . Then, at the behest of his father, he was sent to a foster family in Blumenbühl in the Principality of Hohenfliess so that he could be educated there. Albano had never seen this father. He was already in his twentieth year when Don Gaspard called him to Isola Bella for a first meeting.

The novel begins with Albano's arrival on the island on the eve of the meeting. The next day, Good Friday , the romantic and enthusiastic young man saw the longed-for father for the first time, who, however, was cool and cosmopolitan. He gave him two picture puzzles of sister and mother, each with the inscription: "Nous nous verrons un jour ..." . In addition, Albano learns that one day he will receive a message that - in a very sophisticated way - will play a document into his hands "from which the Christmas tree of his whole life should grow." The knight further orders that Albano should in future be in Pestiz , the residential town of Hohenfliess, which he has not been allowed to enter before. There he will acquire knowledge of government and chambers from the minister "von Froulay [...] ."

The following night, Albano met a ghostly monk in the garden of the Palazzo Borromeo. He greets him: “Remember death” and titled himself as “Father of death” (According to the footnote by Jean Paul: “From the order of St. Paul's [...]. The above address is your usual greeting.” ). He is a "Zahuri" who "is known to have the power to see corpses [...] in the deep earth." The monk prophesies that Albano's sister will die at this hour of the night in Spain, and immediately afterwards he will hear her voice and see their shape on the water. Zesara goes out into the lake with the monk. A voice sounds over Albano: “Take the crown, take the crown - I'll help you.” , Then: “Love the beautiful, love the beautiful, I'll help you.” Again the voice speaks: “Love the beautiful, whom I will help you show ... " ; at the same time, Albano sees a girl floating over the water for "a few seconds" . Back on land, the Zahuri proclaims: "On the next day of Ascension [Albano's birthday] at the hour of your birth you will stand next to a heart that is not in a breast, and your sister will announce the name of your bride to you from heaven."

Surprisingly, Don Gaspard leaves his son the next morning without saying goodbye. Now Albano is also returning home to Hohenfliess. Shortly before pesticide, he remembers his childhood when he saw Blumenbühl. Thus, after the 10th cycle, the novel also jumps back to the childhood days.

Albano experienced with his foster parents, the family of the landscape director v. Wehrfriz had a happy childhood, only marred by the ban on entering the nearby residential town. In addition to the traditional private tutor, the Magister Wehmeier , a music, dance and fencing master is brought into the house. This, a gentleman v. Falterle , introduces himself to the foster parents by bragging about his successes with the noble pupils in Pestiz. These are Don Gaspard's ward, Countess Linda de Romeiro , and Liane and Roquairol , Froulay's children. Roquairol is considered a talented actor who knows how to put himself in the limelight outside of the theater: Because the little Countess Romeiro rejects his love, he shoots himself in the head in front of everyone, but it only grazes his ear. Falterle practices theater roles with Roquairol and often memorises them in Albano's presence. "What had to win all our friend for a young man, he soon as Karl Moor - soon as Hamlet - as Clavigo - saw go as Egmont through his soul" . Albano writes admiring letters to the stranger in Pestiz, but Falterle withholds them. Instead, he directs Zesara's interest to Liana. Albano is kindled in a rapturous love for the never seen. Under the influence of this love, Albano unfolds far beyond what his two teachers can offer him: "... pour imagination, heart, blood and love of honor ..." as if in a barrel. Then he meets the princely agricultural master and artist Dian , a Greek. He "filled the barrel [...] - while Wehmeier and the foster parents ran after him everywhere with a pulpit and a church chair, [...] - with beautiful liberal freedom, he gave him space to develop broad and high."

In Hohenfliess, people fear the death of the decrepit monarch . Crown Prince Luigi is recalled from Italy. At this time Albano received his father's invitation to Isola Bella from the librarian Schoppe . Albano leaves Hohenfliess with Schoppe and Dian, who is supposed to bring casts of antiquities from Italy for Luigi .

The plot of the novel continues from the 28th cycle where it was interrupted after the 10th cycle: with Albanos entering Pestiz. For the first time he enters the “forbidden paradise”, the home of the siblings Roquairol and Liane, whom he admires. Zesara lives with Schoppe and a gentleman v. Augusti . According to his father's will, he is to lead Albano's courtly upbringing in the future, for which the free spirit Schoppe, "who preferred to be outlawed rather than not free or released ...", does not seem suitable. Albano receives a letter from his father: Don Gaspard had received the message sent on Good Friday that Albano's sister suffered from asphyxia and would probably not survive that day. The first prophecy of the Zahuris came true.

The old Prince von Hohenfliess dies - a few weeks after his wife, Princess Eleonore . At this time, Albano is introduced at the Fürstenhof. There he meets Princess Julienne and her brother, Luigi, the heir to the throne. This looks frosty, arrogant, "[with] a flat carving of the spongy face, on which nothing expressed itself but the eternal discontent of the life-wasters, and with some mature gray work on the head (as a forerunner of the wisdom teeth)" . He brags in front of Albano about a gallery of frivolous paintings, so that the young count leaves the court indignantly.

Roquairol also keeps vigil at the dead prince's bier . When his sister Liane approaches the catafalque , he tastelessly points out the dead man's chest without a heart (the prince's heart is buried in a memorial stone in Lilar). This upsets the hypersensitive girl so much that she goes blind. At the table, Zesara's host, the doctor Dr. Sphex, in cold words from this misfortune and prophesies Lianen no long life. Albano fell into deep sadness about it. He fears never to see the beloved girl. His "thirst for knowledge and value, his pride" drive him to study law.

The German Mr. de Bouverot arrives in Pestiz . He is supposed to prepare Luigi's wedding with a hairy princess on behalf of the neighboring Principality of Haarhaar . There one hopes anyway that their own principality will "die of the land and people [of Hohenfliess] if the Hereditary Prince Luigi, the last hollow-tube shot and fox of the Hohenfließer man tribe, withers." Schoppe recognizes the German lord as Zefisio , whom he is in Rome as Has exposed cardsharps. For the first time, Albano can exchange a few words with the blind liana over tea in the Palais Froulay. But her eye condition is improving, soon the convalescents in can Lilar recover, "the pleasure and residential garden of the old Prince" (a settlement with visionary landscaped park in the lovely " Elysium " and the eerie " Tartarus " is divorced ). Albano wanders there and meets the girl at Dian's wife Chariton . Here he speaks to the beloved for the first time undisturbed.

The old prince is buried in Pestiz. During the funeral procession, Albano first saw Roquairol, who had been adored since his youth: “A pale collapsed face, [...] bared from all the youthful roses [...]. What a person full of lived life! [...] but Albano took him deeply into his heart and turned pale with intimate movement and said: 'Yes, it is him!' "He immediately announced his friendship in an enthusiastic, pathetic letter. Roquairol only replies: "I am like you. I want to look for you on Ascension evening." On Ascension Day, his birthday, Albano wanders to Lilar. Around 11 o'clock at night, the hour of his birth, Albano went to Tartarus, remembering the Zahuris prophecy, looking for the monument in which the heart of the dead prince rests. There, "next to a heart [...] that is in no breast," he hears the voice of his dead sister three times: "I will give you Linda de Romeiro." Soon afterwards he met Roquairol; They seal their friendship in a horrific catacomb .

Second volume, (10th to 14th jubilee period, 53rd to 66th cycle)

"But Roquairol was not what it seemed to him." They have nothing in common - except the sound of the voice. Because he was “more capable of finding the true language of sensation on stage [...] than in life.” Nevertheless, Roquairol made up his mind: “Albano, I am not worthy of you.” He confesses to him of his torn soul and confesses to being weary of his life. Albano believes that this desperation is due to Linda de Romeiro's nocturnal promise as his future bride. He fears that Roquairol still loves her and must therefore realize that he is now finally lost. To comfort him, he confesses that he does not love Linda, but only Liane.

Albano is now frequenting Froulay's house. On his birthday there is a bad deal: Bouverot demands Lianen's hand from the minister, who owes him large sums, but his mother firmly protests against it. During Froulay's trip she sent Liane away to the Wehrfriz'sche house in Blumenbühl. Albano can meet her there undisturbed. During a visit to Princess Julienne in Blumenbühl, Albano showed a picture of Lindas. Although he realizes with a start: "It was exactly the figure that rose from Lake Maggiore on that magical night ..." , but despite the promise he confesses his love to Liane.

Third volume (15th to 21st jubilee period, 67th to 92nd cycle)

Liane meets Albano's love with renouncing affection. She wishes and believes "that [he] would be quite happy one day" , "after a year" [...] "according to the prophecies." , Which she also knows. But not with her - Liane - he should find his happiness, but, as predicted, with Linda de Romeiro. She herself will have died by then. She knows that from her dead friend Karolina, who often appears to her and with whom she communicates. Zesara tries in vain to talk her out of this enthusiastic madness.

Because of the upcoming princely wedding, Liane has to return to her parents' house after Pestiz. There she remains inaccessible to Albano. It is hidden from him that Liane has been placed under house arrest because her parents discovered the relationship with Zesara. The quarrelsome Froulay firmly refuses a connection between his house and the Count's family. Instead, Liane is to become the lady in waiting for the new princess and later marry Bouverot. Since the girl stubbornly refuses to break up with Zesara, the mother takes her to the old court preacher Spener , who lives in Lilar as a pious hermit. As a friend and teacher of Liana's, the benevolent old man enjoys her trust. Before him she swears to "renounce her Albano for ever" . “But here the story goes in veils! [...] As he forced it [...] is guarded and covered by the great Sphinx of the oath, which she swore to him. ” - Even before the reader! But for the girl the reasons must be plausible. She forces her parents to give permission for a final undisturbed encounter with Albano and informs him of the end of their relationship. This farewell plunges Zesara into deep despair and shakes Liane so badly that she goes blind again. Schoppe advises the discouraged Count to travel.

The scheming Froulay mercilessly accepts the German gentleman's plan to exploit the helplessness of the blind to paint them in secret while their parents are away. "These two falcons on a pole, trained by a falcon master, the devil, understood and got on well" . But Liane soon notices Bouverot's presence. When he tries to penetrate her, the shock gives her sight back, she escapes him.

Albano receives a letter from his father: He invites him to take part in an art trip to Rome with the new princess. Your lady-in-waiting Liane will accompany you. Don Gaspard's ward, Linda de Romeiro, would come to Pestiz. Since she was given the ghost visions, she avoided Albano's company. When Roquairol learns of Linda's arrival, his "whole face becomes ugly" . In a letter he confesses that he deflowered the daughter of Albano's foster father von Wehrfriz, whom he had been courting for a long time, but that he did not think in the slightest about marrying her. This means the end of the friendship with Zesara. But that blossoms again with the prospect of the trip to Italy. He befriends the princess and is often invited by her to court. This seems to bother Princess Julienne, and one evening she causes a scandal. At home Albano finds an anonymous letter that warns him about the princess and closes with the words: “Flee her! - I love you, but different and forever. Nous nous verrons un jour, mon frère. ” Zesara puzzles: Did Julienne write this sheet? Is she his sister The princess informs Albano that Liane is too ill to take part in the trip. He believes, "That it was precisely his love that had to become the glowing sword that penetrated your life." In his desperation, he closes himself closer to Schoppe. During a visit to the wine cellar, an eerie stranger comes to the table, "like a skull, completely bald and even without eyebrows" . At Albano's insistence, the bald head wants to show him his sister. As in a vision, Zesara finds herself "in an old, dusted, gothic room" . A deeply veiled figure appears - his sister? She gives him half of a broken ring. Confused, he wakes up alone in the forest.

His father insists from afar that he should be sent on a trip to Italy before Lianen's expected death from pesticides. Then a sheet reaches the desperate Zesara: Miss v. Froulay longed to speak to him today. Let him hurry, as she will hardly survive the evening. Albano rushes at Lianen's deathbed. She protests that she has remained loyal to him and urges him to love Countess Romeiro. "Only after a long time will my Albano find out why I left him, only for his own good." He asks for forgiveness too late, Liane dies. Pain and a sense of guilt plunge Zesara into insane feverish dreams that take on life-threatening proportions. He begs the deceased to appear to him to forgive him. Schoppe then devises a daring plan, which he also carries out against the will of his father: He asks the princess sister, Princess Idoine , to appear before Albano because of her deceptive resemblance to Liane. The plan succeeds, "Liane" forgives, Albano is cured and travels to Rome with his father.

Fourth volume (26th to 35th jubilee period, 101st to 146th cycle)

Seized by the ruins of the Roman Forum , his thirst for action awakens: "To do is life, in it the whole person stirs and blossoms with all branches." He decides to join the French revolutionary army. Don Gaspard thinks this is a youthful whim. He advises the son to “educate himself into whole people; how a prince must be ” . There is a falling out with the princess because Zesara evades her courtship. Accompanied by Diana, Albano travels to Naples . In a small town both witness the ascension of a monk. This - Albano thinks he recognizes him as the Zahuri - speaks of a high wall to the crowd. When he saw Zesara, he prophesied “he will travel to Ischia, there he will meet his sister.” Then the monk disappears into the night sky. Now Albano urges the onward journey, a little later the two arrive at Ischia . Here further prophecies come true: During an evening festival on the beach, a boat approaches the island. Women get out, among them - it "seemed a goddess to come" - Linda de Romeiro. Since she suffers from night blindness , Albano guides her on the way home. They fall in love. The next morning, a servant leads him into a room, there is half a ring on a table - Zesara remembers the visionary adventure with the bald head. Suddenly he finds the counterpart in his pocket. A door opens, “smiling and crying” flies to him Princess Julienne: “ Oh my brother!” She evades Zesara's further questions - he will find out everything in October. Surprisingly, Julienne urges her brother to return to Pestiz immediately with her and her lover, but separately from both - the new circumstances are still to remain a secret. On the way they meet in Tivoli . The two girls try to dissuade Albano from his plan to join the French revolutionary army. Because it is not the idea of ​​the revolution that drives him, but the feeling of his own inaction: "Sister, Linda, what else have I done on earth?" He asks. Julienne advises postponing the decision on Albano's plan to October.

Albano returns to Pestiz. There he meets his father, who also strongly advises him to keep silent about the new circumstances at court and to avoid the princess, "because she hates you without limits." During a visit to Blumenbühl he meets the visibly dilapidated Roquairol, who has written a tragedy to the performance of which he urgently invites Zesara. Schoppe has since traveled to Spain. In a long letter he describes how he painted Zesara's mother when he was young. Because of her deceptive resemblance to Linda, he suspects that she is also a sister of Albano. Don Gaspard contradicts Schoppe's assumption and urges a quick wedding. Linda only wants to marry Zesara if he finally renounces military service. Since he is not ready to do so, the lovers briefly feel annoyed, but Linda soon receives a warm letter from Albano in which he accepts her condition. He invites her to a rendezvous in Lilar, which is dark in the evening. But the letter comes from the madly jealous Roquairol. The equally jealous princess had advised him: "You have His voice, and she has no eye in the evening." The night-blind Linda does not notice the deception "and the white wedding dress of her innocence was torn" . The next evening, Roquairol's tragedy is performed. At its climax, to the horror of the audience, he shoots himself on the open stage.

Albano and Linda now discover Roquairol's deception in them, whereupon Zesara separates from her forever. Schoppe returns with the picture of Don Gaspard's wife - it is strikingly similar to Linda. Albano sends the friend with the picture to Linda - she immediately recognizes her mother. Don Gaspard joins them. Angry about the picture theft, he calls his brother, Albano's uncle, who has meanwhile also arrived in Pestiz. This accuses Schoppe of having murdered the bald head in Spain. Don Gaspard gives him a choice: prison or madhouse . He chooses the madhouse, but Albano triggers him. But Schoppe is a broken man because he studied Fichte's philosophy intensively . This confused his mind: He fears that the "I" will meet him. Only the urge to expose the uncle keeps him alive. Albano postpones his escape to France and takes care of his friend. But Schoppe flees, first to the castle, where Luigi is dying. There he stumbled upon the ingenious path that Don Gaspard had announced to his son at the beginning of the first volume, and found the document. Then he confronts the uncle and wants to force him to make a full confession. Then a figure appears who looks like a bottle on his hair: He thinks it is the dreaded “I” and is terrified to death. The stranger turns out to be Siebenkäs (from Jean Paul 's novel of the same name). The dead bottle was his friend's personal giver .

Dissolution of the entire novel plot

At the end of the novel, letters, reports, conversations and documents reveal:

At Don Gaspard's behest, Albano's uncle - "... because he laughs a lot when people are cheated very nicely." - faked the zahuri, the bald head, the voice next to the dead heart and the flying monk and acted as ventriloquist with the help of Dolls and other mechanical devices staged all the ghostly prophecies. The old princely couple von Hohenfließ, who died at the end of the first volume, had remained childless for a long time, so the hope grew in hair hair that they would inherit Hohenfliess in the future. The late-born Crown Prince Luigi was injured in health on behalf of Bouverot's hair hair in Rome through "black acts" (Bouverot induced Luigi to have sex with whores with venereal disease). Don Gaspard's wife and Princess Eleonore von Hohenfliess were friends at a young age. Both - pregnant at the same time - promised to swap the newborns. The countess gave birth to a girl - Linda. The princess was given birth to twins - Albano and Julienne. Since she already had a girl herself, Julienne, only Albano was handed over to Countess Cesara, who as a crown pretender remained hidden from the Haarhaar family. Don Gaspard supported this in order to get revenge at the hairy court for an earlier humiliation. Albano lived on Isola Bella until he was three years old to hide himself, then the prince wanted to see him near him. But because of the resemblance to his father, the prince, the young prince was not allowed to be seen in Pestiz. That is why he was brought up in Blumenbühl near Wehrfriz. Apart from the princely family, only the old court preacher Spener knew Albano's identity. He entrusted these to Lianen, who therefore renounced her love for Albano.

Haarhaar's plan to ruin Luigi seemed to work with the help of the German gentleman, who was promised marriage to Idoine as a “reward”. After Luigi's death, however, Albano presented himself completely surprisingly as the new heir to the throne in Hohenfliess. The “tune” he was looking for in the service of the revolutionary army, he now finds as a reform-loving prince. Princess Idoine, filled with the same aspirations as Albano, becomes his wife and princess.

subjects

Jean Paul commented on Titan in a letter that he should actually be called "Anti-Titan" because "every heavenly climber can find his hell" in it. His aim was to castigate the “general indecency of the sacrum” and denounce the “separation of the ego from contemplation”: In the characters of the novel (Roquairol, Schoppe, Gaspard, Liane, Linda), Jean Paul crystallizes various problem complexes of the Time around 1800. In the end all characters, except for the hero, have to fail because of their one-sidedness. In Schoppe the idealistic philosophy of Fichte is condemned, in Roquairol the aestheticistic l'art pour l'art , as Jean Paul thought to find it in Weimar , in Gaspard coldness and political calculation, in Liane an enthusiastic religiosity ( Pietism , Moravian Brethren ), in Linda the supposedly inappropriate hubris of emancipated women. The hero should develop himself in all of these one-sidednesses and mature into a harmonious, "multi-strength" instead of "one-strength" individual. However, it has often been found that the people who are actually doomed to failure have more tension and interest than the sometimes overly smooth and ideal-looking main character Albano.

reception

Gustav Mahler was inspired by Titan when he composed his first symphony and therefore gave it the subtitle Titan at the beginning , which was later dropped due to various new concepts for the symphony. In addition, Erich Heckel , member of the expressionist artist group Die Brücke , was inspired by the figure of Roquairol to create a portrait of his former friend and colleague Ernst Ludwig Kirchner .

First edition

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lightning over the men's society . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 1992, ( Online - July 20, 1992 ).

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