The Moons Ride Over

by Carl Zuckmayer

Rare Book

Genres: Literary Fiction, Classics

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

German playwright and author.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of artists and intellectuals gather for a summer at a castle retreat high in the Alpine Tyrol (that liminal geographical territory much traversed by 20th Century literature, from Thomas Mann through WG Sebald). The story is narrated by Thomas Stolperer, a painter who was at the Front during WW1 and is visiting his aristocratic writer friend and fellow veteran, the strangely vacant Firmin. Firmin is working on a new play and Thomas is ostensibly there to paint; however, as the summer wears on and the guests come and go, the mysterious workings of nature and the waxing and waning moons begin to dominate events: manifested most of all in the erratic behavior of Magdalena, Firmin's sister and literary 'editor', with whom he shares an unnaturally close retaltionship.

There are some strong set-piece discussions concerning the place of the artist in a changing world and the contrary claims of individual and collective self-determination. In one passage, the devastation wrought by WW1 on a generation of young artists poignantly comes to the surface in a speech by the obviously damaged Firmin. (That the argument is prompted by Magadalena's Fascist fiance Mario, provides a chilling intimation of the coming war, the novel having been written in 1935).

It seemed to me that the female characters in the novel were much more compellingly drawn than the male. The passages relating Magdalena's nocturnal communions with the moon are suffused with an uncanny eroticism. Mena, the waitress with whom Thomas takes up when he retreats from the castle to a nearby inn, initially appears to be no more than a cipher for the class theme underlying Thomas' relationship to the castle residents, but she is memorably fleshed out during their visit to her home town. And it would have been good to see more of the sympathetially drawn 'Lavacca', wife of Firmin. I guess it takes a writer of some skill to describe a woman as cow-like and make it seem a compliment:

"It was just that when one looked at her, and even more when one heard the deep and tranquilizing sound of her voice, one thought of udders fragrant with milk and a soft mouth plucking at calamint and thyme, but above all of the animal look in wide moor-brown eyes that seem so full of a measured wisdom and have given the goddess her epithet "Bo Opis"..."

In a Picnic at Hanging Rock-like ending, the brother and sister's proto-incestuous relationship is consumated in death, as they fall into a ravine while attempting to scale the mist-enveloped mountain. It appears that a world or way of life is dying and Thomas has been correct in his instinct to extricate himself. The novel ends with him re-committing himself to his painting.

[Jeff]

Probably approaching my 10th read of the book. To judge honestly, the writing style and character dialoge aren't the the best among this era's literature, and the story is too sentimental. There are simply times when you are drawn by an artistic work, this one just caught me. But if the writing lacks in style and the author had somewhat of a simpleton matter of describing certain things, the story has a nice structure, and a perfect balance of irresistible themes (and there are quite a few themes) that are held together by the explicit use of a specific location as an overarching theme.

I have read 3 different publications of the book, I list this here because the book ends with a very short chapter called "Nachspiel: lob, sing, vergess, bedenk -- und beweine", or something like that. However, I have 2 editions that are missing this chapter, with solid bindings where no pages have been lost. I know it's called "Nachspeil", but I've looked around a little, I haven't seen anything about a later addition to the story. This chapter is very different from the others, but the ending is too abrupt without it.

[Jeff]

Last year was my 2nd or 3rd read of the English version. The writing style is no fun to read. I'm no expert, but I'm guessing the translation style is to blame, not the original. For the review of this book, see entry for the original title, Salwàre oder die Magdalena von Bozen. An interesting note, there are 2 minor omissions in the English, neither of which effects the content or plot, but both of which are totally unrelated to translation tactics. For an even more strange omission, see the entry for the German title.