I won ‘Michael Kohlhaas’ by Heinrich von Kleist in a giveaway hosted by Caroline from Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Lizzy from Lizzy’s Literary Life, who are also the hosts of German Literature Month in November. I read it in one sitting. Here is what I think.
What I think
‘Michael Kohlhaas’ is about a horse dealer of the same name who is honest and works hard and has a happy family. Once, when he is travelling to the market to sell horses, he is stopped on the way, near a castle, and the castellan asks him to pay the toll charge. He also harasses him asking him for documentation that he doesn’t have. Then, the castellan holds back two of his horses and asks him to come back with the documentation and collect them. When Michael Kohlhaas goes to the city, he asks his friends who work in the government whether any new documentation is required. He discovers that it is not required and that the castellan has just harassed him. He lets things be. After selling the other horses he had brought with him and completing his business he goes back and asks the castellan for his horses. The castellan asks him to take his horses from the stable. When Kohlhaas goes to the stable, he discovers that in his absence, his horses have been worked to death, and are unrecognizable. His groom, who he has left behind to take care of the horses, is missing. The castellan says that the groom didn’t behave himself and so was expelled. Kohlhaas is extremely annoyed, but lets things be. He goes back home and finds his groom, who has been beaten up by the castellan and others and is recovering from his injuries. After listening to the groom’s side of the story, Kohlhaas discovers that he has been taken for a ride. He files a case in a court of law against the owner of the castle, Junker Wenzel von Tronka, asking for his horses to be returned in their original condition. But von Tronka is a knight and has connections everywhere and so Kohlhaas’ case is dismissed. Kohlhaas tries repeatedly to get justice through normal means but his attempts are foiled. His wife tries to help him but it results in her death. Kohlhaas decides to defy the law and find justice for himself. What happens next forms the rest of the story.
‘Michael Kohlhaas’ is a vintage Kleist novella. It grips the reader from the first page. Normally the first line of a Kleist novella grabs the reader’s attention, but in this novel, it is the last line of the first page which does that. It goes like this – “But his sense of justice turned him into a brigand and a murderer.” I suspect that out of Kleist’s novellas, this must be the longest at 131 pages. Like a typical Kleist novella, it also has dozens of characters – it is amazing how many characters Kleist manages to squeeze in, in such a short space.
‘Michael Kohlhaas’ is the story of a normal man who finds it difficult to get justice on a small issue and ends up fighting the system – the courts, society, the government, the King. It is like an everyday man goes at war with the world. He is clearly the underdog. As readers, we know that the odds are stacked against him, but we root for him. We hope he wins in the end. We hope he is happy in the end and continues with his normal life. Michael Kohlhaas wins. But he opens a Pandora’s Box while doing that and this leads to not-so-good consequences for him.
An innocent man pitted against the might of the world is a theme which has been frequently exploited by writers and movie-makers. I didn’t know that the original version of this theme was first envisioned by Kleist in this novella. My favourite movie versions of this theme are ‘Payback’ (which has Mel Gibson) and the Tamil movie ‘Dhool’ (which has Vikram and Jyothika). Both of them have happy endings. ‘Payback’ seems to have been inspired by an older movie which was based on a novel and I think if we dig deeper we will end up at the footsteps of Kleist’s book.
I haven’t read Kleist’s ‘The Marquise of O-‘ yet, but till I get to it, I have to say that ‘Michael Kohlhaas’ is my favourite novella of his. I discovered that there is a 1969 German movie version of this book. I want to see that sometime.
Other Reviews
Have you read ‘Michael Kohlhaas’ or other novellas of Kleist? What do you think about this or other books of his?
You make me want to read this now. From reading your review I can judge that this must be a novella that could trigger strong reactions in the reader and in many ways it sounds like a typical Kleist story.
I hand’t thought of how many movies and books this inspired. I’d like to watch the German movie but also the other two you mention.
I’m very curious whether The Marquise of O will also be your favourite.
I really like it a lot.
Guy reviewed The Duel yesterday btw. It was the fifth in the Art Of the Novella series that he has read.
Hope you get to read this book and like it, Caroline. Will look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
I love the premise of ‘The Marquise of O’ and I suspect that it will become my favourite Kleist story. I can’t wait to read it.
I will hop over to Guy’s blog to read his review of ‘The Duel’. It is amazing that he has read five books from ‘The Art of the Novella’ series. He has become a novella connoisseur now 🙂
If you saw my post earlier today, Vishy, you’ll see that I read The Marquise of O along with 5 other Kleist novellas last week. I didn’t have time to review them but I’ll reveal that “The Marquise von O” was not my favourite. I much prefer Michael Kohlhaas. In fact, I didn’t mention my favourite in my post at all because I want to write a full review. I shall be returning to Kleist in December ….
Read your comment and then went and read your post on Kleist, Lizzy. Looking forward to reading your review of the Kleist novellas that you read last week. Interesting to know that ‘The Marquise of O’ is not your favourite but ‘Michael Kohlhaas’ is. ‘Michael Kohlhaas’ is definitely wonderful and I loved it. I can’t wait to read ‘The Marquise of O’ and find out what I think about it. It is the last day of German Literature Month – so Happy Reading!
Oh dear – it appears I’m on my own with this one 🙂
I’m still not convinced of Herr Kohlhaas’ qualities though 😉
Ha, ha, ha! I am sure there are others who agree with you, Tony 🙂 Herr Kohlhaas does bend and break the law more than necessary, and the arson and looting was definitely a bit too much. But I loved the central theme of the tale – which was what happens when a small man is harassed and he decides to take on the system.
[…] Naughty Saint Vitalis) Keun (After Midnight (1) (2) (3)) Kleist (Betrothal in San Domingo /Michael Kohlhaas /The Beggar Woman of Locarno/The Broken Jug /The Duel (1) (2) (3) /The Earthquake in Chile/The […]
Sounds very sad, and very relevant to many countries still today. I’ve never even heard of this writer – shameful!
I agree with you Sarah – it is very sad but also very relevant. Kleist is a wonderful writer and his first sentences are nearly always awesome. Hope you get to explore some of his works.
[…] Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist […]