Trix (novel)
Trix (in some editions with the subtitle "The Woman of Tricks") is a gruesome novel that Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem published in 1903 in the Leipzig Reclam publishing house . The work is one of the author's most successful and up to the 1920s alone had at least 44 editions.
The novel tells the story of the young noblewoman Beatrix von Dornberg, who unexpectedly inherits an important manor house and then becomes the focus of the intrigues that an exploitative relative begins to spin.
plot
The location of the action is initially the fictional Marienthal women's monastery , which dates from the 1890s. The 19-year-old Baroness Beatrix von Dornberg, called "Trix", lost both parents when she was young and has been living for several years as a canon in the Marienthal Abbey, as her aunt, Baroness Anna von Sulgenbach, as her father had run down his estate Abbess presides. When the mother's brother, Count Rudolf von Zell, dies childless, he leaves Trix his rule, the former Frauensee monastery.
Counselor Dr. Klaus, the executor of the will , thinks that Trix in Frauensee cannot live without a chaperone and recommends Sophie von Graßmann, a noble lady with relevant professional experience, for this position. Frau von Graßmann is the widowed sister of Marie Therese von Truchseß, to whom Count Rudolf was once married; however, the count's marriage soon fell apart, and Marie Therese has also died in the meantime. Sophie had spent happy days with her sister in Frauensee and is - apparently for this reason - overjoyed to be able to return there.
Trix moves into the Frauensee. Since she is extremely resolute in spite of her young age, Frau von Graßmann hardly finds the opportunity to assert the authority that she is actually entitled to by virtue of her office; alternatively, she tries to win Trix's trust by being all the more amiable. While exploring her new home, Trix makes all sorts of interesting discoveries. So she finds the unfinished draft of a letter in which Count Rudolf warns her, Trix, about a certain female person, whose name he then no longer writes down. Furthermore, she hears rumors of a secret door through which one is supposed to get from her bedroom to the monastery church without being seen. Thirdly, she discovers that Count Rudolf's art treasures include a precious necklace that Cesare Borgia had made to poison Beatrice . Since Trix is an incorrigible, cheerful person and sees only good things everywhere, none of these impressions can of course capture her attention in such a way that she immediately investigates the matter.
While wandering around in the forest, Trix makes the acquaintance of her neighbor, the young Hans von Truchseß, a nephew of the Truchseß sisters, who, however, secretly does not speak well of his aunt Sophie von Graßmann. Hans is engaged to Euphrosyne ("Phroso") Rablonowski, a count's daughter who is as beautiful as she is superficial, and Trix will soon be introduced into her parents' house. For the reader it is already obvious after a few pages of the book that the warm-hearted, thoroughly honest and proper Hans and Phroso, who is only keen on a good match, do not go together at all. Trix also makes friends with the art-loving old chaplain, Father Müller, and with the down-to-earth senior magistrate Richter, who reports to three young volunteers: Messrs. Von Rheinfeld, Syrop and Rindig; all three have been at Trix's feet from the start.
Gradually - at least for the readers; The unshakably good-humored Trix remains unimpressed by the most obvious suspicions - it is evident what Ms. von Graßmann actually wants in Frauensee. Count Rudolf played it out after he caught her forging his signature once. Her love and at the same time her curse is her son Max, a hussar who had to leave his regiment as a result of a player trial and his mother, who only has to work as a chaperone, has been on the bag ever since. Frau von Graßmann is hoping for a connection between Trix and the young Duke Angus von Lochlomond, a cousin of Phrosos, in order to make Max, who was compromised by his trial, socially acceptable again by introducing him to Trix and her future husband.
Instead of Trix, Angus flirts with Phroso. Trix, who observes this, almost loses her belief in the good in Phroso, but quickly recovers. However, the shock releases the knowledge in her that she loves Hans. Since she has decided to continue to trust Phroso, and Hans wants to spare any love accident about Phroso, she is ready to do without her lover. Then Max von Graßmann arrives and behaves so disgustingly that the warnings that Trix have heard from various quarters in the meantime would not have been necessary. Trix can't stand it and insists that it be removed immediately. Ms. von Graßmann also goes a step too far in her intrigues by letting the maid Elise spy on Trix. When Trix finds out, she dismisses the maid and decides to get rid of Frau von Graßmann too. Before she succeeds, Max attacks her with a declaration of love. Faithful Siegfried Rindig, one of the three volunteers, protects them from their adversary. A little later, Max is lying in wait for her in the lonely "Alchemist Tower" and tries to force her to get engaged with physical violence; Trix saves herself by leaping out of the window, from which she escapes with injuries that fortunately can be cured with a little bed rest. Max takes revenge for Trix's rejection by poisoning her beloved dachshund.
Together with Father Müller, Trix discovers the secret of the murderous Borgia necklace: hidden in the clasp of the necklace are three fine needles that are moistened with poison in their hiding place and drill into the wearer's skin when the jewelry is put on. Frau von Graßmann, who does not know this, enters Trix's bedroom through the secret door in order to steal the precious jewel, puts the chain around her neck and fatally poisons herself.
Angus asks Hans to give up his claim to Phroso. The latter happily agrees: as a result, he is finally free to declare his love for Trix.
Classification in literary history
The literary scholar Urszula Bonter has dealt with the novel in her study The popular novel in the successor to E. Marlitt and notes that Adlersfeld-Ballestrem in it "follows the external recipe of the Gothic novel", "on the connection of the external and the inner action "but renounce. The lively, daring and naive title character, who can be shaken by nothing, feels no fear even in the most threatening situations, which spares the readers every shiver. At the same time, the author doesn’t miss any set pieces typical of the genre in her novel; In Frauensee, for example, Trix moves into the death room of the uncle, of all places, does not mind that the deceased nuns are buried under the adjoining Söller, and she also explores the lonely Alchemistu unaccompanied, as if this were a fun adventure.
Expenses (selection)
- Trix . Reclam, Leipzig 1903.
- Trix . Van Rossum, Utrecht 1909 (Dutch edition, translated by Wilhelmine van Westrheene).
- Trix . e-artnow, 2017, ISBN 978-80-268-6204-8 .
Web links
- Trix. Retrieved February 12, 2021 (online edition).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eufemia v. Adlersfeld-Ballestrem. Retrieved February 12, 2021 .
- ↑ Urszula Bonter: The popular novel in the successor of E. Marlitt: Wilhelmine Heimburg, Valeska Countess Bethusy-Huc, Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-2979-8 , p. 139 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).