Seldwyla Folks

Three Singular Tales

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Pages: 157

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About this book

In the invented Swiss town of Seldwyla, respectability can conceal a narrow and joyless view of life. Gottfried Keller's three tales bring that tension into stories of work, rivalry and attachment, translated into English by Wolf von Schierbrand. The collection includes Three Decent Combmakers, Dietegen, and Romeo and Juliet of the Village. Its opening turns to a combmaking workshop and questions the virtue of people who earn carefully, avoid debts and measure goodness by keeping out of trouble.

The passage from Dietegen moves into a cemetery at night, where the frightened Kuengolt receives food and protection from a young man whose loyalty she understands differently from him. That gap between private judgment and another person's hopes gives the scene its emotional weight. Readers interested in Swiss social customs and short fiction will find humor alongside close attention to pride, duty and practical acts of care.

About the author

Gottfried Keller

Gottfried Keller was a Swiss poet and fiction writer associated with nineteenth-century German-language realism. His linked story cycle Die Leute von Seldwyla portrays an imagined Swiss town through satire, civic argument, failed schemes, work, courtship, and changing fortunes.