Aus Franzensbad:
Plot:
A countess is sent to the spa town Františkovy Lázně by her doctor. The countess is worried that she will be out of her mind with boredom there, so she convinces the doctor that she will fill her time with writing letters to him – letters that are supposed to be published as a travel memoir/guide. But the countess’ idiosyncratic approach to her writing leaves the doctor at a bit of a loss.

Aus Franzensbad was one of the earliest things Ebner-Eschenbach published and it has a youthfulness and dynamic energy that seems to reflect that. But I have to admit that I often felt that I lacked the necessary knowledge and background to really appreciate the many references often built into the text. It is still entertaining, though.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2023/07/29/aus-franzensbad-marie-von-ebner-eschenbach/

Das Gemeindekind:
Plot:
After robbing a church and killing a priest, Pavel’s father is sentenced to death, his mother who was forced by her husband to help with the crime is sentenced to ten years in prison. Pavel and his sister Milada are now the responsibility of the borough. Milada, who is pretty and cute, gets taken in by the local countess but Pavel (who is around 12 at the time) has to stay with an abusive foster family and endure the community’s shunning of him, since everybody assumes that he’s going to turn out like his parents.

Ebner-Eschenbach’s writing style is, of course, a little outdated. Her book is not. She writes sensitively and sensibly about the life of the poor at the end of the 19th century (and it seems pretty realistic to me), even though she herself was noble and pretty rich. And in Pavel, she examines the relationship between individual choice and biological determinism, which is a still unanswered and interesting question.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2010/04/22/das-gemeindekind-the-municipal-child-marie-von-... ( )