My German Literature Month this year hasn’t gone well so far. I have been able to read just one book till now. Today, I thought I will try to do something about it. I thought I will read one of my old favourites and hope that it will bring back my reading mojo. So, I read ‘Immensee’ by Theodor Storm.
‘Immensee’ is around forty pages long. So, it is closer to a long short story or a short novella. The story starts with an old man getting back from a long walk to the place that he is staying. He goes into his room, sits on a chair and rests. After a brief while he looks at an old picture of a beautiful woman and says ‘Elisabeth’. His mind goes back to his younger days. The story then takes us back to the past when the old man was a boy of ten called Reinhard and his best friend and sweetheart was a girl called Elisabeth who is five. They are always together, he tells stories to her, they play at the forest near their homes, they go on picnics together with other children and pick strawberries. Unfortunately, the time comes when the boy has to go to a bigger town to study. He promises the girl that he will write to her regularly and will come back soon. The boy writes down all the stories that he used to tell the girl – her favourite ones – and keeps sending them to her. He also keeps a notebook in which he writes poems about the girl, about all the experiences they have gone through. Both of them are very much in love, though they don’t articulate that explicitly. But as in all the best love stories, things don’t go according to plan. The physical distance creates a barrier between a boy and the girl and they try bridging it every time they meet, but it becomes harder and harder. What happens to Reinhard and Elisabeth? Does the story have a happy ending? I can go on and tell you what happens next, but I think you should read the story to find out. After all, it is only forty pages long 🙂
I first read ‘Immensee’ three years back and loved it at that time. So, I was a bit worried when I read it again, because I was afraid of what will happen if my re-reading experience was not as good as the original one. Well, I needn’t have worried. The book was beautiful during my re-read too. It was beautiful in a different way though. I noticed things that I didn’t notice the first time – for example a gypsy singer who comes at the beginning of the story makes an appearance in the end, singing her favourite song which intensifies the poignant mood of the story. I also loved Theodor Storm’s beautiful descriptions of nature – the trees and the forest and the bees and the larks and the linnet and the canary and the river and the early morning and the mist and the dew and the first rays of the morning sun – it was vintage Storm. The story was worth reading for this beautiful evocation of nature alone. Nature was there even in the title – a footnote said that ‘Immensee’ stood for ‘Lake of the Bees’ (though some readers have a problem with this translation). Theodor Storm’s prose also gives an atmospheric, melancholic feel to the story, which makes one’s heart ache. Not the heartbreaking kind, but the mild, melancholic ache, which refuses to go away.
I also spotted a reference to India in the story, which made me smile. It went like this :
Elisabeth : Are there no lions either?
Reinhard : Lions? Are there lions? In India, yes. The heathen priests harness them to their carriages, and drive about the desert with them. When I’m big, I mean to go out there myself. It is thousands of times more beautiful in that country than it is here at home; there’s no winter at all there.
One part of that dialogue is totally true. There is no winter in India. One of my college professors used to joke that there were only three seasons in India : hot, hotter and hottest!
There were many songs and poems scattered throughout the book like pearls. They were all beautiful. My favourites were the song which the gypsy girl sings in a tavern during Christmas Eve (it ends with ‘I must die alone’) and the poem which Reinhard and Elisabeth read towards the end of the story, ‘By my mother’s hard decree’. I think the poems and the songs must be more beautiful in the original German.
I also loved the fact that many of the important things in the story are implied but not explicitly stated. It doesn’t mean that they are ambiguous and left to the reader’s interpretation – they are clear enough but implied. Theodor Storm does that masterfully. In the last scene a new character makes an appearance in one sentence and we can’t help asking ourselves what that meant – is there a twist in the story here? Who is this Bridget? Is there something here that Storm implies? Isn’t this a straightforward story but one in which a lot of stuff happens in the gap between the last and the last-but-one chapters? I would love to hear your thoughts on it, if you have read the story
I will leave you with one of my favourite passages from the book.
Elisabeth : And who, pray, made all these pretty songs?.
Eric : Oh, you can tell that by listening to the rubbishy things – tailors’ apprentices and barbers and suchlike merry folk.
Reinhard : They are not made; they grow, they drop from the clouds, they float over the land like gossamer, hither and thither, and are sung in a thousand places at the same time. We discover in these songs our very inmost activities and sufferings : it is as if we all had helped to write them.
I am glad I re-read ‘Immensee’. I fell in love with it all over again, with the beautiful Elisabeth and the wonderful Reinhard and the kind Eric and the beautiful landscape that Theodor Storm creates. I think I will be reading it again. Maybe after a few years.
Have you read ‘Immensee’? What do you think about it?
I’d really like to read some of Storm’s works. Tony reviewed another one of his stories and I think I’d like them.
I’m sometimes wary of re-reading favourite books. I’ve just started a favourite of mine from years book (for GLM4) and it’s just as good as I remember – so far! It’s great when that happens. 🙂
Hope you get to read one of Storm’s works, Jonathan. I really love the way he evokes the atmosphere of a place.
Glad to know that you are re-reading one of your favourite books and liking it. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
This sounds lovely. I haven’t read this author before but I love the title of this story. The first time I read it as “immense” and thought it was a beautiful name for a love story.
Nice to know that you like the title, Delia. ‘Immense’ is a wonderful title for the story too. If you would like to read it online, you can find it here.
Thank you for the link, Vishy. I just finished reading the story. Very sad, melancholy but also beautiful. I loved all the little details – the description of Reinhard’s eyes as an old man, the strawberries, the stories he wrote, the parallel with the white lily, beautiful delicate strands that hold the whole thing together.
I hated Eric for not being able to see what should have been plain to see, and was disappointed in Reinhard for not saying what was in his heart all along.
I think Bridget was just Bridget, the housekeeper.
And the old man was alone at the end, just like the gypsy’s song.
Glad to know that you liked the story, Delia. I loved your description of the little details. It was sad that Eric couldn’t see what was visible in plain sight and I was sad that Reinhard didn’t reveal his heart to Elisabeth. Sometimes people find it so hard to make that leap.
Lovely review. I love this story but was never courageous enough to re-read it.
It’s a bitter-sweet story.
Thanks Caroline. I hope you get to re-read it sometime. I was worried about re-reading it too, and so I am glad that it went off well and it was a good experience.
I, too, am struggling somewhat to meet even my simplest reading goals. Meanwhile I am trying to accept it for awhile and see what happens. What a delight to know that you enjoyed the second read of “Immensee” by Theodor Storm. Your fondness of the story ignited a spark that makes me want to read it too. Could you send me the link to the online version?
It was a pleasure to read your rewiew of this book. It felt so full of light, delicate, and charming. I enjoy reading the reviews at least as much as the boks themselves.
It is 37 degrees F here and my head is wet from swimming. It makes me lomg for a climate that is hot, hotter and hottest!
I am really looking forward to reading this story. Thank you for your wonderful inspiration.
Hope you can get back to your normal level of reading, Heidi. Glad to know that you liked my review of Storm’s book. You can find the online version here. Happy reading! I will look forward to hearing your thoughts on the book.
It must be getting cold there. I miss the snowy winter – the crisp air and the snow and the fact that even when the sun comes out it is cold and the way the streets and the shops are lighted up in the evenings. I also miss the opportunity to wear winter clothes. I love winter clothes but now all of mine are packed in boxes. Here we are living through the best time of the year – the sun is pleasant and warm, the rains will stop soon, the days are beautiful with clear skies and the nights will be cool from December. I am thinking of taking long walks.
I’ve gone and downloaded this from PG to read later, it sounds lovely. I like that you opted for a shorter read, you can still say you’ve read for GLM without the pressure of longer books 🙂
Hope you enjoy reading it, Charlie. I will look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. I sometimes try reading a shorter work to get out of a reading slump. It helps most of the time.