Wellen (novel)
Encyclopedia
Eduard von Keyserling
Eduard Graf von Keyserling was a Baltic German fiction writer and dramatist and an exponent of literary Impressionism.-Biography:...
first published in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
in 1911
1911 in literature
The year 1911 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*George Moore publishes the first of his three-volume Hail and Farewell .*Gallimard publishing house founded in Paris by Gaston Gallimard...
. Set during a long hot summer in a small fishing village somewhere on the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, most likely on the Curonian Spit
Curonian Spit
The Curonian Spit is a 98 km long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea coast. Its southern portion lies within Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia and its northern within southwestern Lithuania...
, it depicts a group of aristocratic city-dwellers spending their holidays in that remote part of the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. However, rather than painting a rural idyll
Idyll
An idyll or idyl is a short poem, descriptive of rustic life, written in the style of Theocritus' short pastoral poems, the Idylls....
, Keyserling focuses on the follies of a doomed fin de siècle
Fin de siècle
Fin de siècle is French for "end of the century". The term sometimes encompasses both the closing and onset of an era, as it was felt to be a period of degeneration, but at the same time a period of hope for a new beginning...
society whose self-imposed repressions eventually lead to catastrophe.
Plot summary
Doralice, Countess of Köhne-Jasky, has walked out on her much older husband and run off with Hans Grill, a young artist who had been commissioned by the Count to paint his wife's picture. Now, a year later, Hans and Doralice have come to the Baltic coast to spend a solitary summer's holiday in a fisherman's hut. They are said to have got married in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
so their relationship is outwardly considered "correct" although their marriage is generally seen as a misalliance
Misalliance
Misalliance is a play written in 1909–1910 by George Bernard Shaw.Misalliance takes place entirely on a single Saturday afternoon in the conservatory of a large country house in Hindhead, Surrey in Edwardian era England. It is a continuation of some of the ideas on marriage that he expressed in...
, especially by the society Doralice has left behind. While she herself is rather unsure about her future, Hans Grill is an optimistic free spirit, though not quite a libertine
Libertine
A libertine is one devoid of most moral restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behavior sanctified by the larger society. Libertines, also known as rakes, placed value on physical pleasures, meaning those...
, who is full of plans in which Doralice figures prominently. He dreams of setting himself up as a successful painter in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
—thus being eventually able to stop living off his wife's money—and of living with her in a small suburban house.
Rather than shunning the unlikely couple, the other tourists at the small fishing village feel morally obliged to associate with them, at least perfunctorily. They are the extended Buttlär family: Baron von Buttlär; his wife Bella; their three children Lolo, Nini, und Wedig; and Baron von Buttlär's mother-in-law, the Generalin von Palikow. They are soon to be joined by Hilmar Baron von dem Hamm, Lolo's dashing fiancé, who is an officer in the German army. Also present is the Geheimrat
Geheimrat
Geheimrat was the title of the highest advising officials at the Imperial, royal or principal courts of the Holy Roman Empire, who jointly formed the Geheimer Rat reporting to the ruler...
von Knospelius, a high-ranking civil servant
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
. Burdened with a physical handicap, and never having married, Knospelius is used to leading a vicarious life through the people he surrounds himself with, and as soon as they have arrived he introduces himself to both the Buttlärs and the Grills.
The presence of a scandalous couple does not go unnoticed by the Buttlär children. Rather, it is one of their games to sneak out of the house at night together with Ernestine, one of the young servants
Domestic worker
A domestic worker is a man, woman or child who works within the employer's household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping...
, to catch a glimpse of Doralice through the open window of the Grimms' rented hut. One day, while swimming in the sea, Lolo meets Doralice on a sandbank and is deeply impressed by her cheerful manner, her wit, and her beauty, so much so that she decides to send her a huge bunch of red roses, while instinctively choosing her as her role model
Role model
The term role model generally means any "person who serves as an example, whose behaviour is emulated by others".The term first appeared in Robert K. Merton's socialization research of medical students...
.
Others who are also impressed by Doralice's beauty include Baron von Buttlär, a known womanizer now jealously guarded by his wife, and Hilmar von dem Hamm, who openly starts courting Doralice despite her husband's and his own fiancée's presence. His endeavours to win Doralice's heart culminate in a boating trip he undertakes with her while the others stay behind. Doralice feels flattered by the attentions of a member of the very social class that has ostracised her. At the same time she realizes her indebtedness to, and possibly love for, Hans and stops all further advances on Hilmar's part. Lolo on the other hand, aware of her fiancé's infatuation but unprepared for life's harsh realities due to an over-protective upbringing, decides to sacrifice herself by committing suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. At night she secretly leaves the house wearing only her bathing costume under her coat, walks down to the beach and starts swimming out into the ocean, far beyond the sandbank where she met Doralice. She is rescued by local fishermen who drag her half-conscious body into their boat and return her to her family.
Although Lolo makes a quick and full recovery, etiquette
Etiquette
Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group...
demands of the Buttlärs that they depart immediately. Those who stay behind into the autumn are Hans and Doralice Grimm and Geheimrat Knospelius—the latter because, unbeknownst to everyone, he has handed in his resignation and now has all the time in the world; and the Grimms because they actually have no other place to go. In the course of the summer, Hans has become more and more monosyllabic, and Doralice longs for some serious talk concerning their future together: She realizes she desperately needs Hans's reassurance of his love for her. Hans, however, keeps postponing that talk to the following day and indulges in his growing fascination with the sea. Not only does he paint it; he now accompanies the fishermen on their nightly routine on a more or less regular basis and then sleeps during most of the day.
One night he goes out fishing with Steege, a notorious drunkard whose vice has prevented him from buying a new fishing boat. The old dilapidated one cannot defy the thunderstorm
Thunderstorm
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, thundershower or simply a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. The meteorologically assigned cloud type associated with the...
of which they have been warned, and the sea claims two more lives: After long days of waiting, Doralice and Mrs Steege finally accept the fact that their husbands are not coming back. At this point Knospelius makes Doralice the unexpected offer to be his companion for the foreseeable future and to spend the winter with him touring the Greek islands.
Rediscovery
Literary critic Jens Malte Fischer called Keyserling "possibly the most unknown of the great German story-tellers of the century." Wellen was selected as one of 100 great novels of the 20th century by the Süddeutsche ZeitungSüddeutsche Zeitung
The Süddeutsche Zeitung , published in Munich, is the largest German national subscription daily newspaper.-Profile:The title literally translates as "South German Newspaper". It is read throughout Germany by 1.1 million readers daily and boasts a relatively high circulation abroad...
and reprinted in a special edition in 2004.
Film adaptation
In 20052005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
Vivian Naefe
Vivian Naefe
Vivian Naefe is a German film director. Her films include the Die wilden Hühner series , Wellen , and two Tatort episodes....
adapted Keyserling's novel for television. Based on a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Günter Schütter, the film starred Sunnyi Melles
Sunnyi Melles
Sunnyi Melles is a German actress.-External links:*...
, Matthias Habich
Matthias Habich
Matthias Habich is a German actor.Habich was born in Danzig and lives in Paris. In the 2001 film Enemy at the Gates about Stalingrad, he played the part of General Friedrich Paulus...
and Marie Bäumer.
Various changes to the plot of the novel were made. For example, in the film, the action is set on the eve of the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in order to stress the imminence of death of an aristocratic society and its antiquated social mores and conventions. Also, for whatever reason, Knospelius was renamed Froselius, while the artist's name is given as Til Knop. Hilmar von dem Hamm becomes Carl von Gonthard.