La Violoniste

by Ferdinand von Saar

133 pages, Paperback

Published August 21, 2025

About the author

Ferdinand Ludwig Adam von Saar was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet.

Together with Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach he was one of the most important realistic writers in the German language of the ending 19th century in Austria.

Reviews

[Pascale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice but slight. The narrator, a man called Waldberg, is a philosopher in the mold of Schopenhauer, although not as prolific. During a walk with a friend, he chances upon the discovery of the body of a woman who died from drowning. Deeply upset, he tells his companion the story of Ludovica, the talented violinist who just ended her life. Ludovica once performed in a trio with her sisters Anna and Mimi. Her misfortune was deeply to be madly in love with a good-for-nothing whose debts she always paid. Alexis strung her along with promises of marriage for years, until he fell under the spell of the rash and egotistic Mimi. Unable to to let go of Alexis, Ludovica stooped to asking Waldberg to intervene on her behalf, in full knowledge of the fact that he was in love with her, and was the better man of the two. Of course, Waldberg's pleading had no effect on the degenerate Alexis, who eventually died penniless in Ludovica's arms. Later, Waldberg met Ludovica again, and was shocked to see she had married a baron who had exactly the same weaknesses as Alexis. Once totally insolvent, the baron tried to become Ludovica's pimp, which was the last straw and caused her suicide. While the narrative seems to highlight the tragic fate of a female artist irresistibly attracted to bad boys, in fact it is just as much about the pathos of Waldberg's misspent life: as gifted as Ludovica in his own way, he has also failed in love, and not made the most of his genius. Too refined and possibly too proud to actively seek love and laurels, Waldberg condemned himself to the status of witness to the debacles of others.