Part 37 (1/2)

Fontane possesses the wonderful irony of the Berliner--an irony which, paradoxical as it may sound, is nave; for it is nothing but an involuntary doubt of his equally nave conceit, as Fontane often likes to say. a.s.suredly the Berliner is inclined to a certain conceitedness.

He belongs to a city which has grown great in a struggle against antipathies--antipathies of the Government and of the ”Junker” cla.s.s, of the poets and of the rival capitals, one might almost say of nature herself, so sparingly has she dealt with this city on the Spree. In this constant struggle Berlin has been victorious, and every Berliner to this day feels that victory to the marrow of his bones. Fontane, using his friend Lepel as his mouthpiece, makes him say, ”Well, Fontane, there you are again; talking like an oracle. It all comes from that curiously nave belief in yourself. You always think you know everything best. But I can tell you, there are people living on the other side of the mountains too.” This quiet feeling of superiority the Berliner has gained only after a struggle, and therefore he is at bottom precisely aware of his limits. No one can express this more strikingly than Fontane himself: ”Deeply penetrated by my insufficiency and my ignorance, I saw--incredible though it may seem--that the ignorance of my fellow-creatures was even greater than my own. So I was at the same moment both humble and conceited.” There is the typical Berliner! He knows well his own weakness, but, since he is successful, he takes it for granted in all navete that he is yet the one-eyed among the blind.

It is this att.i.tude which gives Fontane's irony its peculiar flavor....

The gentle melancholy of two people coming together in a way which can never lead to full satisfaction, the quiet tragedy of a separation not forced by external powers but by the constant pressure of circ.u.mstances--this is what sounds through this splendid story. ”Trials and Tribulations” is built entirely on this motive. An honest st.u.r.dy young officer and a decent pretty girl get to know each other on an excursion. Unconsciously they drift into a relation where heart meets heart, the breaking of which causes the deepest pain. But both see clearly from the beginning that there is no other end. For they know that the world is stronger than the individual, and the many small moments than the one supreme. They know it, for they are, like their creator, resigned realists. They shut their eyes only in order not to see the end too near. Then comes the parting, still and quiet: ”She leaned on him and said quietly and warmly, 'And so this is the last time that I shall hold your hand in mine?'”--From ”Die deutsche Litteratur des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts” (1910).

II

By S. C. De Soissons

In 1898, Germany suffered a great loss in the person of Theodor Fontane, who represented a superior kind of realism, and to whom the modern German novel was very much indebted. As he was of French origin, his writings naturally possessed more equilibrium and measure than one usually finds in German writers; he also had a fine and keen esprit, never importuning, never displaying his wit, never running into pathos.

For that reason his novels seemed cold to sentimental readers and frivolous to moralists. But the cultivated and unprejudiced reader admired his quiet experience and his deep knowledge of external life as well as of the depths of the human soul, qualities which were mingled with a love of his native country, Brandenburg. But although dead, Fontane has not ceased to be the father of modern realism. All that is good, true, beautiful, and important in the German realistic novel comes from Theodor Fontane. Naturalism and symbolism stand far apart from him; but even the most pa.s.sionate and the most intelligent adversaries of symbolism point to him as a representative of true art.--From ”The Modern German Novel,” in ”The Contemporary Review”

(1904).

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

A BERLIN NOVEL

CHAPTER I

At the junction of the Kurfurstendamm and the Kurfurstenstra.s.se, diagonally across from the Zoological Garden, there still remained, about the middle of the seventies, a large market-garden, extending towards the open country. The little house belonging to this property had but three windows, and was set about a hundred paces back in a front garden; yet in spite of its small size and its secluded position, it could be plainly seen from the road that ran past. But all else that belonged to the place, and indeed formed the princ.i.p.al part of it, was hidden behind this little dwelling as if by the side-scenes of a theatre, and only a little red and green painted tower with a half broken dial beneath its peak (nothing remained of the clock itself) gave one a hint, that behind this ”coulisse” something more must be hidden, a hint which was confirmed from time to time by the rising and circling of a flock of pigeons around the tower, and still more by the occasional barking of a dog. Where this dog was actually kept it was indeed impossible to find out, in spite of the fact that the door of the house, which was close to the left corner, stood open early and late and afforded a glimpse of a small part of the yard. However, nothing seemed to have been purposely hidden, and yet everyone who came along the road at the time when our story begins, had to be satisfied with a glimpse of the little house with its three windows and of a few fruit trees that stood in the front garden.

It was the week after Whitsunday, when the days are so long that it seems as if the dazzling light would never come to an end. But to-day the sun was already hidden behind the church-tower of Wilmersdorf and instead of the light, with which it had filled the front garden all day, the shades of evening had already fallen, and the half mysterious silence was only surpa.s.sed by that of the little house which was occupied by old Frau Nimptsch and her adopted daughter Lena as tenants.

But Frau Nimptsch was sitting as usual by the large low hearth in her front room, which took in the whole width of the house, and, bending forward, she was gazing at a blackened old tea kettle, whose lid kept up a continual rattling, although the steam was pouring out of the spout. The old woman was holding her hands out towards the glowing embers and was so lost in her thoughts and dreams that she did not hear the hall door open and a stout woman enter somewhat noisily. Only when the latter cleared her throat and greeted her friend and neighbor, our Frau Nimptsch, quite affectionately by name, did the latter turn around and speak to her guest in friendly fas.h.i.+on and with a touch of playfulness: ”Well, this is good in you, dear Frau Dorr, to come over again. And from the 'castle' too. For it is a castle and always will be. It has a tower. And now do sit down.... I just saw your dear husband go out. Of course he would have to. For this is his evening at the bowling alley.”

She who received this friendly greeting as Frau Dorr was not only stout, but was an especially imposing-looking woman, who produced the impression of narrow-mindedness as well as that of kindliness and trustworthiness. Meanwhile Frau Nimptsch apparently took no offence and only repeated: ”Yes, his evening at the bowling alley. But what I was going to say was, that Dorr's hat really will not do any longer. It is all threadbare and really disgraceful. You ought to take it away from him and put another in its place. Perhaps he would never know the difference.... And now draw up your chair, dear Frau Dorr, or perhaps over there where the footstool is.... Lena, you know, has slipped out and left me in the lurch again.”

”Has he been here?”

”Of course he has. And they have both gone a little way towards Wilmersdorf; n.o.body comes along the footpath. But they may be back again any minute.”

”Well, then I had better go.”

”Oh, no indeed, dear Frau Dorr. He will not stay. And even if he should, you know, he would not mind.”

”I know, I know. And how are things then?”

”Why, how should they be? I believe she is thinking of something even if she does not want others to know it, and she is imagining something or other.”

”Oh, my goodness,” said Frau Dorr, as she drew up a somewhat higher stool instead of the footstool that had been offered her. ”Oh, my goodness, then it's bad. Whenever one begins to imagine things, trouble begins. It is just like the Amen in church. See here, dear Frau Nimptsch, it was just the very same with me, only there was no imagining. And that is just why everything was really quite different.”