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Kurt di Koppigen
Kurt di Koppigen è come un personaggio di Dostoevskij perso nel Medioevo e nelle foreste del Bernese – con qualche anno di anticipo su Dostoevskij stesso. La sua anima mal sbozzata e agitata da impulsi incontrollati lo spinge dalla tetra rocca dove è nato verso le strade più impervie. Così, per scalfire l’indifferenza di una madre cui è legato da un’oscura soggezione, Kurt commette un delitto e si fa brigante di strada. Di qui in poi, ogni suo gesto si inscrive, quasi per incantesimo, in un destino di perdizione che nulla – neppure il matrimonio con la devota Agnes – sembra poter capovolgere in riscatto. La fiaba angosciosa di Kurt ha per sfondo valli folte e aspre, per comprimari loschi eremiti e spietati assassini, e per quinta interiore le agghiaccianti visioni che serrano il protagonista in una morsa apparentemente senza scampo. Per capire questa storia in tutta la sua fosca bellezza, occorre porla accanto alle opere più alte e inquietanti dei grandi narratori dell’Ottocento. Kurt di Koppigen è stato pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1844.
- GenresFiction
151 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1844
17 people want to read
About the author
Jeremias Gotthelf
468 books25 followersHe was born at Murten, where his father was pastor. In 1804 the home was moved to Utzenstorf, a village in the Bernese Emmental. Here young Bitzius grew up, receiving his early education and consorting with the boys of the village, as well as helping his father to cultivate his glebe. In 1812 he went to complete his education at Bern. He was a founding member of the Student Society Zofingia, the second-oldest fraternity in Switzerland (founded in 1819).
In 1820 he was received as a pastor. In 1821 he visited the University of Göttingen, but returned home in 1822 to act as his father's assistant. On his father's death (1824) he went in the same capacity to Herzogenbuchsee, and later to Bern (1829). Early in 1831 he went as assistant to the aged pastor of the village of Lützelflüh, in the Lower Emmental (between Langnau and Burgdorf), being soon elected his successor (1832) and marrying one of his granddaughters (1833).
He spent the rest of his life in Lützelflüh, where he died, leaving three children (the son was a pastor, the two daughters married pastors). During the 1840s, he steadfastly opposed radicalism and secularism and placed a conservative emphasis on piety and ecclesiastical authority. There are lives of Bitzius by C. Manuel, in the Berlin edition of Bitzius's works (Berlin, 1861), and by J. Ammann in vol. i. (Bern, 1884) of the Sammlung Bernischer Biographien.
He started writing late in life. His first work, the Der Bauernspiegel, oder die Lebensgeschichte des Jeremias Gotthelf, appeared in 1837. It purported to be the life of Jeremias Gotthelf, narrated by himself, and this name was later adopted by the author as his pen name. It sketches the development of a poor country orphan boy, but is not an autobiography. It is a living picture of Bernese (or, strictly speaking, Emmental) village life, true to nature, and not attempting to gloss over its defects and failings. It is written (like the rest of his works) in German, but contains expressions from the Bernese dialect of the Emmental, though Bitzius was not (like Auerbach) a peasant by birth, but belonged to the educated classes, so that he reproduces what he had seen and learnt, and not what he had himself personally experienced. The book was a great success, as it was a picture of real life, and not of fancifully beribboned eighteenth-century villagers. Henceforth Bitzius was a prolific writer, and in the last 18 years of his life became one of the important novelists not only of Switzerland but of the German language in general.
Commemorative plaque at his birth house in Murten/Morat
His best known work is without doubt the short novel The Black Spider (Die schwarze Spinne), a semi-allegorical tale of the plague in form of the titular monster that devastates a Swiss valley community; first as a result of a pact with the devil born out of need and a second time due to the moral decay that releases the monster from its prison again.
Among his later tales are the Leiden und Freuden eines Schulmeisters (1838–1839), Uli der Knecht (The story of a poor peasant laborer who develops into the owner of a prosperous farm; 1841), with its continuation, Uli der Pächter (1849), Anne-Bäbi Jowäger (1843–1844), Käthi, die Großmutter (1846), Die Käserei in der Vehfreude (1850), and the Erlebnisse eines Schuldenbauers (1853). He also published several volumes of shorter tales.
His works were issued in 24 vols. at Berlin, 1856–1861, while 10 vols., giving the original text of each story, were issued at Bern, 1898–1900.
In 1820 he was received as a pastor. In 1821 he visited the University of Göttingen, but returned home in 1822 to act as his father's assistant. On his father's death (1824) he went in the same capacity to Herzogenbuchsee, and later to Bern (1829). Early in 1831 he went as assistant to the aged pastor of the village of Lützelflüh, in the Lower Emmental (between Langnau and Burgdorf), being soon elected his successor (1832) and marrying one of his granddaughters (1833).
He spent the rest of his life in Lützelflüh, where he died, leaving three children (the son was a pastor, the two daughters married pastors). During the 1840s, he steadfastly opposed radicalism and secularism and placed a conservative emphasis on piety and ecclesiastical authority. There are lives of Bitzius by C. Manuel, in the Berlin edition of Bitzius's works (Berlin, 1861), and by J. Ammann in vol. i. (Bern, 1884) of the Sammlung Bernischer Biographien.
He started writing late in life. His first work, the Der Bauernspiegel, oder die Lebensgeschichte des Jeremias Gotthelf, appeared in 1837. It purported to be the life of Jeremias Gotthelf, narrated by himself, and this name was later adopted by the author as his pen name. It sketches the development of a poor country orphan boy, but is not an autobiography. It is a living picture of Bernese (or, strictly speaking, Emmental) village life, true to nature, and not attempting to gloss over its defects and failings. It is written (like the rest of his works) in German, but contains expressions from the Bernese dialect of the Emmental, though Bitzius was not (like Auerbach) a peasant by birth, but belonged to the educated classes, so that he reproduces what he had seen and learnt, and not what he had himself personally experienced. The book was a great success, as it was a picture of real life, and not of fancifully beribboned eighteenth-century villagers. Henceforth Bitzius was a prolific writer, and in the last 18 years of his life became one of the important novelists not only of Switzerland but of the German language in general.
Commemorative plaque at his birth house in Murten/Morat
His best known work is without doubt the short novel The Black Spider (Die schwarze Spinne), a semi-allegorical tale of the plague in form of the titular monster that devastates a Swiss valley community; first as a result of a pact with the devil born out of need and a second time due to the moral decay that releases the monster from its prison again.
Among his later tales are the Leiden und Freuden eines Schulmeisters (1838–1839), Uli der Knecht (The story of a poor peasant laborer who develops into the owner of a prosperous farm; 1841), with its continuation, Uli der Pächter (1849), Anne-Bäbi Jowäger (1843–1844), Käthi, die Großmutter (1846), Die Käserei in der Vehfreude (1850), and the Erlebnisse eines Schuldenbauers (1853). He also published several volumes of shorter tales.
His works were issued in 24 vols. at Berlin, 1856–1861, while 10 vols., giving the original text of each story, were issued at Bern, 1898–1900.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 27, 2013
Il Kurt prodigo
Kurt di Koppigen appartiene a buon diritto alla grande letteratura fantastica ottocentesca, e in molte parti ricorda i lunghi racconti di E.T.A. Hoffmann. Rispetto a questi, tuttavia, risente della visione del mondo un po' angusta di Gotthelf, già riscontrata in altri racconti (vedi in particolare Mareili delle fragole compreso nel volume Elsi, la strana serva) secondo cui la felicità sarebbe appannaggio della civiltà e dell'ordine sociale contadino delle valli svizzere. Anche in questo caso, per Kurt, al di fuori di questo ordine c'è solo delitto, confusione ed infelicità. Il ritorno alla felicità domestica, alla moglie ed ai figli, del protagonista, sarà preludio ad un ordinato sviluppo che porterà al superamento delle ingiustizie medievali ed all'arricchimento dei contadini.
Il libro è comunque gradevole e ben scritto, anche se in alcune parti un po' scontato e prolisso.
Kurt di Koppigen appartiene a buon diritto alla grande letteratura fantastica ottocentesca, e in molte parti ricorda i lunghi racconti di E.T.A. Hoffmann. Rispetto a questi, tuttavia, risente della visione del mondo un po' angusta di Gotthelf, già riscontrata in altri racconti (vedi in particolare Mareili delle fragole compreso nel volume Elsi, la strana serva) secondo cui la felicità sarebbe appannaggio della civiltà e dell'ordine sociale contadino delle valli svizzere. Anche in questo caso, per Kurt, al di fuori di questo ordine c'è solo delitto, confusione ed infelicità. Il ritorno alla felicità domestica, alla moglie ed ai figli, del protagonista, sarà preludio ad un ordinato sviluppo che porterà al superamento delle ingiustizie medievali ed all'arricchimento dei contadini.
Il libro è comunque gradevole e ben scritto, anche se in alcune parti un po' scontato e prolisso.
September 9, 2023
Eigentlich ist ja angesichts der Zeit vor knapp 200 Jahren, als Gotthelf seine Geschichten schrieb, jede Erzählung eine historische. Aber hier datiert er sie 600 Jahre zurück, also ins Hochmittelalter um 1250. Lange war mir nicht klar, was Gotthelf mit dieser langen Erzählung von 1850 eigentlich aussagen will, wohin er die Geschichte lenkt. Erst ganz zum Schluss wird klar, dass es nicht um eine Rittergeschichte aus dem Raubrittermilieu geht, sondern um eine Geschichte der Errettung aus dem Bösen in der Weihnachtsnacht. 18 Kapitel lang beschreibt Gotthelf das Leben und die Entwicklung eines armen, auch dummen, aber starken Jungen zum Manne und wie sich der Ritter aus verarmten Hause durchschlägt. Im letzten Kapitel wird plötzlich alles gut mit der entsprechenden Deutung und Moral der Geschicht' Nicht so toll.
November 21, 2023
Nichts besonderes. Das Buch ist eine Erzählung des Lebens eines mittelalterlicher Ritters, seine grausame Mutter, und wie er immer wieder zu einer wilden, räuberischen Existenz zurückkehrt, bis er in einem Weihnachten so tief im Abscheu fällt, dass er sich entscheidet, ein sittliches und ruhiges Familienleben zu führen. Die Geschichte kann auch als ein schweizer, mittelalterlicher Road Trip / Bildungsroman beschrieben sein. Das Text enthält meherere schweizerdeutsche Wörter, aber nichts unverständiges für ein Leser, der nur Hochdeutsch kann. Jeremias Gotthelf macht während seiner Erzählung mehrere Vergleiche zu seiner gegenwärtigen Welt, was manchmal humoristisch scheint, aber es hilft, um manche universellere Ideen hervorzubringen.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews