Josta kamaszos rajongása a szomszéd birtok ura iránt az évek során szerelemmé érett, így boldogan fogadja Ramberg kérését, hogy legyen a felesége. S bár úgy tűnik, csak gyógyírként kell a férfinak, hogy feledtesse vele élete beteljesületlen, nagy szerelmét, Josta „harcba száll” a férfi szívéért…
Hedwig Courths-Mahler (pronounced [he:tviç kurts ma:ləʁ]), née Ernestine Friederike Elisabeth Mahler (February 18, 1867 in Nebra) – November 26, 1950 in Rottach-Egern) was a German writer of formula fiction romantic novels. She used the pseudonyms Relham, H. Brand, Gonda Haag and Rose Bernd.
Lagan ljubavni roman koji prati mladu djevojku Jostu u potrazi za pravom ljubavi. Radnju bih smjestila u kraj 19-og, možda početak 20-og stoljeća, definitivno prije Prvog svjetskog rata. Vrijeme je to bezbrižnosti, bogatstva, pravila i manira, staleža i dogovorenih brakova.
Josta Waldow, nećakinja ministra, dvadesetih godina, prava ljepotica, živi uglednim bogataškim životom u dvorcu, jaše na svom jednopregu. Zamršeni odnosi u obitelji možda skrivaju budućeg joj, dugo željenog muža...
Raineru Rambergu svidjela se mlada Josta te je dogovorio brak s njenim ocem. Josta, iako isprva šokirana, zapravo je zadovoljna svojim ženikom i trudi se biti što bolja žena i nova gospodarica imanja. Dotadašnja gospodarica imanja, Gerlinda nepopravljivo je zaljubljena u Rainera, ali još uvijek nosi crninu zbog smrti svog muža. Na sve se načine trudi otežati Josti. Gerlinda, iako starija 10ak godina, i dalje je lijepa, ali za razliku od Joste, djeluje jako hladno i proračunato. Bilo mi ju je žao jer ih je ljubav napravila ogorčenom i zlom. Reinerov brat Henning se zaljubljuje u Jostu odmah čim ju upozna, tako da obrata ne manjka u knjizi.
Ocjena je tako niska jer nisam neki ljubitelj ljubavnih romana, osobito ne klasičnih ljubića prepunih romantike. Preporuka pravim ljubiteljima ljubavnih romana, svidjet će vam se i jedan klasik ;)
CITATI:
"Kad su se za njim zatvorila vrata klinula je bez snage na stolicu. Izgubili su se svi njezini divni, sjajni sni o budućnosti. A njezina je ljubav prema Raineru postala samo jos dublja i toplija. Koliko god velika ta ljubav bila, tolika je bila i njezina mržnja prema Josti, iako je nije ni poznavala. Ta žarka mržnja obuzela je njezinu dušu učinivši je okrutnom i tvrdom. Platit će mi za ovo! Ne smije biti sretna uz njega! Nikad Rainer neće naći sreću kraj neke druge."
"Mučila ju je pomisao da je njoj bilo već trideset godina, dok je njezina suparnica bila deset godina mlađa. Pažljivo je na svom licu tražila tragove starosti. Na sreću - nije ih mogla otkriti. Oči u oči sa svojom slikom u ogledalu donosila je neprijateljske odluke u vezi s Jostom."
"Mi smo žene osuđene na to da svoje osjećaje i misli skrivamo pred očima svijeta i da plačemo tiho od čežnje."
"Sada je znala zašto Gerlinda čini takvu podlost. Morala ju je žaliti više no što ju je prezirala."
"(...) ljubavi se ne može zapovijedati."
"Bila je samo nesretna uza me, jer me nije mogla ljubiti, ali ne stoga što je ljubila tebe."
A light love novel that follows a young girl Josta in search of a true love. I would place the plot at the end of the 19th, perhaps the beginning of the 20th century, definitely before the First World War. It is a time of carelessness, wealth, rules and manners, caste and arranged marriages.
Rainer Ramberg liked young Josta and arranged a marriage with her father. Josta, although shocked at first, is actually happy with her fiancé and tries to be the best possible wife and a new mistress of the estate. Until Josta, mistress of the estate was Gerlinda, who is irreparably in love with Rainer, but still wears black because of the death of her husband. She tries in every way to make a new life for Josta difficult. Gerlinda, although about 10 years older, is still beautiful, but unlike Josta, she looks cold and calculated. I felt sorry for her because love made her bitter and evil. Reiner's brother Henning falls in love with Josta as soon as he meets her, so there is no shortage of twists in the book.
The rating is so low because I’m not a fan of romance novels, especially not classic love stories full of romance. Recommendation to true lovers of love novels.
I have divided opinions on this book. More about that later.
This book starts with the engagement of Josta and Reiner. Josta is a young girl and she has grown up calling Reiner her "uncle". Rainer is a well-established man in his late thirties. So naturally, when he proposes, she is skeptical and appalled at first. Being a girl at this historic time, she agrees to marry. Moments after she overhears her father talking with her fiance about his ex love, which was "the one" for him. Josta makes up the whole story as her soon-to-be husband is in love that cannot be and will never love her truly. By realizing this, she realizes that Rainer is actually her "one true love", and decides to hide her true feeling because of it. Rainer, thinking that Josta still considers him "her uncle" decides to give her some time and space to figure her knew role. And that is how this misunderstanding made the plot of this novel. They got married and she moves in. Later on Rainers brother Henning falls in love with Josta, it is "love at first sight" of course. Henning falls weak in front of Josta because of his love and admits everything to her. She runs in tears. Rainer, thinking he is in the way of Jostas and Hennings feelings, decides to set her free. Josta, who does not share Hennings feelings, is deeply hurt by Rainers disinterest in her and leaves. Now I need to give you some backstory as well. There are more characters involved in this. The first person that needs to be mentioned is Gerlinda. She is in love with Rainer, and she lives on his property, as his late cousin's wife. Naturally, she hates Josta and wants to get rid of her. At some point she thinks Josta is in love with Henning and decides to help them get together. The plot will untangle by arrival of Jostas blood sister. In the beginning, we learn that Jostas father was not her actual father but her uncle. Gladys (her sister) will have an important role at the end of the book.
Even though this book has, to me, unrealistic and weird plot, it is easy to read and actually interesting. Hennings end makes zero sense to me and I personally would have never agreed on such thing what he proposes. Here, I believe, you can definitely tell how a man wrote this book. Because I disagree with the plot itself, this book was not motivating for me to read and it took me quite some time to actually finish it. Therefore, I would not necessarily recommend this one.
Like all Courths-Mahler's novels, this romance, first published in 1919, is full of big emotions, noble characters and surprising discoveries of kinship and set in a timeless, seemingly pre-war setting of Edwardian (well, Wilhelmine) elegance. This may sound daft, but I find it quite entertaining, it is well enough written and I enjoy the noble characters going through suffering to find a happy ending. It also occurred to me that I can relate more easily to the characters in here than to those of modern novels of the kind where happy endings come after failed marriages, catastrophic relationships and general bad vibes. In this one, in particular I liked that the 'bad', scheming woman, while selfish, was also written as truly in love. The final resolution, I thought, quite satisfyingly fulfilled what I expect of a 'romance'.