William Lovell

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Ludwig Tieck
* 1773 † 1853

William Lovell is a letter novel in ten books by Ludwig Tieck , which was published by Carl August Nicolai in Leipzig and Berlin in 1795/96 under the title "The Story of Mr. William Lovell" . Tieck published revised editions in 1813/14 and 1828.

The disinherited young Englishman William Lovell emphatically seeks his way of life and perishes in the process.

time and place

The letters were written in the years 1793–1796 from England (Bondly in Yorkshire , London, Waterhall, Dover , Kensea in Hampshire , Roger Place in Hampshire, Nottingham and Southampton ), Scotland ( Glasgow ), France (Paris, Lyon , Chambéry , Nice ) and Italy (Rome, Florence, Tivoli , Naples, Piedmont , Pisa , Padua ). The first letter is from May 17, 1793. The time told goes back to 1756.

structure

In this epistolary novel, various characters conduct correspondence. The eponymous hero William Lovell corresponds most eagerly with the Italian Rosa. The Italian, "trusted friend" Lovells, is a puppet of the Englishman Waterloo. The Englishman calls himself Andrea Cosimo in Italy. Waterloo is closely related to William's friend, Baron Eduard Burton. At the end of the novel, 80-year-old Waterloo puts his story on paper shortly before his death. Waterloo loved Marie Milford. However, Marie married Walter Lovell and died giving birth to their first child, William.

The novel is the story of a hatred. Resentful Waterloo destroys the two Lovells because he couldn't get Marie at the time. To do this, he uses u. a. his "squire" pink. In addition, Waterloo recruits his nephew Baron Burton - this is Edward's father - for his campaign of revenge against Walter Lovell.

William and his German friend Balder, a mentally ill person, are the two poets in the book. Poems from her pen are interspersed in the letters.

content

The English landowner Walter Lovell sends his son William on an educational trip to Italy. The father gives the son the experienced Mortimer as a travel companion on the way. Paris, that big world, repels young Lovell as he passes through. Lovell, the enthusiast, poetic, prefers the rural shadows of the English forest to the big city. In Paris, William Lovell meets the Italian Rosa. Soon the poison of the big world affects William. The young Englishman, who had to leave his childhood sweetheart Amalie Wilmont at home in Bondly, breaks the heart of the young girl by approaching the Comtesse Blainville. The Comtesse is one of Rosa’s tools.

Meanwhile, at home, old Baron Burton successfully uses the insidious Jackson as his lawyer to drive Walter Lovell into economic ruin.

William makes the fateful acquaintance of Balder. The latter's melancholy is contagious for the susceptible young Lovell and expands in the course of the novel into an indomitable longing for death. The latter eventually succumbs to William. Before that, Ludwig Tieck leads the amazed reader past the treasures of Italy. Lovell gets to the Pantheon when the moon is full and a holy shiver envelops him.

Mortimer, having returned to England, turns off the beautiful young Amalie Wilmont while William is away. Mortimer does this through his pen pal, Amalia's brother Karl. Williams father unexpectedly comes to the aid of the scheming Mortimer. A connection between the son and Amalie is out of the question for old Lovell. He has the wealthy Lady Bentink in mind as a suitable bride for the only son. William does not participate, but initially plays the obedient son. The "characterless" withdraws from Amalie.

Under Rosa's “guidance”, William Lovell seduces the young, naive Italian Rosaline.

After old Lovell has lost his possessions to old Burton, he deteriorates visibly, surprisingly gives his consent to the son's connection with Amalie and wishes William back to England.

Rosaline realizes that William is responsible for the death of her bridegroom Pietro and goes into the Tiber. William learns of his father's death through his friend Eduard Burton. Eduard also announces that Amalie married Mortimer. William renounces his loyal friend Edward.

Karl Wilmont loves Emilie Burton - Edward's sister - but only wants to offer her marriage after he has become economically independent. William returns home incognito and sneaks into Edward's house as an "impoverished patient". Eduard removes his former friend from his house after he has recognized him. Previously, he made up for William excessively for the material loss William suffered from old Burton. Emilie recognized the newcomer even earlier than her brother and fell in love with him. She follows him and is left penniless along the way by the faithless who does not love her. As a gambler, William can increase his new capital in London. Karl Wilmont is desperately looking for his Emilie. He hates William. For his part, William hates Mortimer, who snatched Amalie from him. William needs to see Amalie. He approaches Mortimer's estate and saves Amalie's life during a fire.

Emilie, sick, “on her death bed” abroad, informs Mortimer of her whereabouts by letter. When Mortimer arrives there, Emilie has already died. Now Karl Wilmont is after William Lovell for the rest of the novel. He wants to punish the monster.

William gambled away his new fortune in Paris, went back to Italy and became a robber and then a beggar. He longs for death. By chance he comes back to money. Karl Wilmont places William Lovell in Naples and challenges him to a duel. William lets himself be shot after marking his own chest with a mallow from Rosaline's garden.

Self-testimony

  • The book is “the mausoleum of many cherished and loved sorrows and errors”.

interpretation

Heilmann did his doctorate on the book in 1991. The discussion sees Lovell in the series of his predecessors " Pamela or the rewarded virtue " ( Richardson 1740), " Julie or The New Heloise " ( Rousseau 1761), " The Sorrows of Young Werther " ( Goethe 1774) and "The Forest Brother" ( Lenz , unfinished, published posthumously 1882). For example, in the section “The Wonderful”, Heilmann examines “ Lovell from a historical-poetological point of view” and points to the contradiction that lies in Tieck's assertion “because belief and feeling are one”. Just as critically is Heilmann Tie's sentence, according to which “there can be no feeling in us that does not point us to reality, that does not correspond to the real thing”.

reception

literature

source
  • Marianne Thalmann (Ed.): Ludwig Tieck: William Lovell . Pp. 235–697 in: Ludwig Tieck, works in four volumes; based on the text of the writings from 1828 to 1854, taking into account the first prints. Volume I: Early Stories and Novels. Winkler Verlag Munich 1963 (1978 edition). 1045 pages. Thin print, leather, head gold cut, ISBN 3-538-05711-7
expenditure
Secondary literature
  • Johannes P. Kern: Ludwig Tieck: poet of a crisis . Pp. 23-32. Lothar Stiehm Verlag Heidelberg 1977. 243 pages. Volume XVIII of the Poetry and Science series
  • Ernst Ribbat: Ludwig Tieck. Studies in the conception and practice of romantic poetry. Pp. 46-64. Athenäum Verlag , Kronberg / Ts. 1978. 290 pages (habilitation thesis, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster), ISBN 3-7610-8002-6
  • Gerhard Schulz : The German literature between the French Revolution and the restoration. Part 1. The Age of the French Revolution: 1789–1806. Pp. 379-381. Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-00727-9
  • Roger Paulin: Ludwig Tieck . Pp. 29-31. JB Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung Stuttgart 1987. Series: Metzler Collection; M 185, 133 pages, ISBN 3-476-10185-1
  • Markus Heilmann: The crisis of the Enlightenment as a crisis of narration. Tiecks “William Lovell” and the European epistolary novel. JB Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung Stuttgart 1992. 289 pages, ISBN 3-476-00861-4 . Dissertation at the University of Tübingen 1991
  • Fritz Brüggemann : The irony in Tiecks William Lovell and his forerunners: a contribution to the prehistory of German Romanticism , dissertation, Jena, 1909; Unchanged reprographic reprint Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1976, ISBN 3-534-06413-5

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source, p. 1037, 4. Zvo
  2. ↑ Paulin, p. 31
  3. ↑ Source, p. 237
  4. ↑ Source, p. 327, 14. Zvo: Waterloo was born in 1716 (Quelle, p. 671, 3. Zvo)
  5. ↑ Wollin, quoted in Ribbat, S. 46, 17 ZVO
  6. ↑ Heilmann, p. 218, 12. Zvo and p. 249, 13. Zvu
  7. ↑ Heilmann, pp. 237-251
  8. ↑ Heilmann, p. 247, 14. Zvo
  9. ↑ Heilmann, p. 247, 25. Zvo
  10. ↑ quoted by Marianne Thalmann in: Quelle, p. 1003, 7th Zvu
  11. ↑ Marianne Thalmann in: Quelle, p. 1003, 8. Zvo
  12. ↑ Schulz, p. 379, 20th Zvu
  13. ^ Marianne Thalmann in: Quelle, p. 1022, 17. Zvo
  14. ↑ Marianne Thalmann in: Source, p. 1003, 20. Zvu
  15. ↑ Kern, p. 30, 6. Zvo
  16. ^ Paulin, p. 29, 14. Zvo
  17. ↑ Ida von Lüttichau - Truth of the Soul (supplementary volume, will be published by Autonomie und Chaos Leipzig at the end of 2011)