Franziska

by Ernst Weiss, Anthea Bell (Translator)

Following the death of her mother, Franziska turns away from love and follows a grimly determined path to achieve a career as a concert pianist. Her determination takes her from her humble home in a small Czech town to an unconventional life in Prague, and eventually draws to a destructive climax in pre-war Berlin. Franziska is a fascinating exploration of character, an alluring treatment of the power of music and of a woman’s obsession. Ernst Weiss’ second novel was published in 1914 and was highly regarded by Franz Kafka, with whom Weiss was in regular contact.

Genres: German Literature

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1916

About the author

Ernst Weiss was born in Brno, Moravia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now the Czech Republic) to the family of a prosperous Jewish cloth merchant. After his father died when he was four, he was brought up by his mother Berta, née Weinberg, who led him to art. However after completing his secondary education in Brno, Litoměřice and Hostinné, he came to Prague to study medicine. In 1908 he finished his studies in Vienna and became a surgeon. He practiced in Berne, Vienna, and Berlin but he got tuberculosis and tried to recover as a ship doctor on a trip to India and Japan in 1912. In 1913 he met Rahel Sanzara, a dancer and actress and their relationship lasted until she died of cancer in 1936. In the same year he met Franz Kafka and they became close friends. Kafka wrote in his Diaries 1914: "January 2. A lot of time well spent with Dr. Weiss". Weiss was in touch with a lot of other writers of Prague Circle such as Franz Werfel, Max Brod, and Johannes Urzidil. In 1914 Weiss returned to Austria to start a military physician career. Near the end of World War I he received a golden cross for bravery. After the war he lived in Prague, then the capital of Czechoslovakia. He gave up medical career in 1920 when he finished working in a Prague hospital. In 1921 he moved to Berlin but in 1933 he returned to Prague to care for his dying mother. He could not enter Nazi Germany and so he left for Paris in 1934. There he lived a poor life dependent on the help from authors such as Thomas Mann and Stefan Zweig. He applied for, but did not receive, a grant from the so-called American guild for German cultural freedom. He committed suicide on 14 June 1940 when German troops invaded the city.

Reviews

[Rosenkavalier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jules et Jim sul Karlův Most, angolo Potsdamer Platz

Questo racconto mi ha dato da pensare.
Man mano che ci pensavo ho aggiunto una stella, poi due.
Ora ne ha cinque, come è giusto che sia.

I protagonisti sono tre ragazzi poco più che adolescenti e due città, Praga e Berlino.
Franziska ha pochi affetti e poche speranze. L'unica sua vera passione è il pianoforte, la musica l'unica ragione di vita.
Egoista come solo un'adolescente infelice può essere, vive solo per suonare, indifferente a chi le sta intorno, sprezzante di tutti coloro che le sembrano rassegnati a una vita mediocre.
Erwin ha avuto i suoi guai, il più grande però è l'indecisione, la mancanza di una direzione. La vita, per una volta, gli serve una buona mano, ma Franziska è troppo per lui, troppo assolutamente innamorata di lui come lo era stata del pianoforte, a cui sarebbe tornata poi.
Hedy, poco da dire, del resto nemmeno Weiss si dilunga: “una di quelle mille creature umane che si rassomigliano tutte fra loro per contegno, gusti, desiderio moderato di piaceri, abbigliamento e grazioso visino, ma che in fondo sono senz'anima”.

Tre ragazzi quasi adulti, alle prese con un'educazione sentimentale approssimativa.
Cuori contenti, da queste parti, non se ne vedono e infatti il Cielo non si prodiga. Osserva distrattamente, mentre i tre fanno la spola tra Praga e Berlino.
Praga evocata dalle povere case di Zizkov per trionfare in un acquerello di Kampa vista dal Ponte, le statue dei Santi, il Castello più in alto.

Berlino che potreste vedere in un Kirschner, con la bella gente a convegno in Potsdamer Platz
(Las Vegas quarant'anni prima di Las Vegas) che guizza veloce, ma verso dove?

Franziska torna alla carriera da concertista, Erwin la guarda andarsene, Hedy fa una brutta fine.
I loro treni vanno all'incontrario, ma non sarebbero bastate comunque tutte le coincidenze del mondo, non era destino.

Weiss mi era noto, finora, come uno scrittore raffinato ma spigoloso, con un fondo sempre presente di durezza (qualità che si ritrova anche nelle descrizioni che di lui hanno lasciato J. Roth, T. Mann e persino l'amico Kafka).
Franziska è un romanzo pieno di lirismo, a volte ingenuo nel descrivere un'artista “assoluta” alla maniera dei romantici ottocenteschi (roba che, ai tempi suoi, era già stata mandata in soffitta, almeno in teoria). Quando l'ho finito, non ero convinto.
Ma ci sono troppe cose in questo libro, evidentemente affiorano dopo un po' e il conto delle stelle sale.

Non so se consiglierei di leggerlo. Però, visto che sono due paginette (e che ho fatto la fatica di trascriverle, l'ho fatto per me, sia chiaro), leggete
questa nota: in realtà sono le pagine 34, 35 e po' della 36, quando Franziska, camminando verso il Ponte Carlo, avverte per la prima volta che la sua corazza era una gabbia.

PS: la mia edizione, Anno XI EF, costava 5 Lire. Per 5 Lire, nell'Anno XI EF potevi portarti a casa un romanzo della collana “I Corvi – Serie Nera: Israele, storia, leggende e romanzi ebraici”. L'Anno XI EF era il 1933. Nel 1938 furono approvate le leggi per la difesa della razza. Buona notte.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Franziska is a moody, desolate tale of a young woman's struggle for a life that she deems worthwhile and worth living. Her love of piano-playing and her presence in Prague and Berlin between the world wars create an atmosphere of both hope and desolation, though the characters just never seem to develop and mesh into a cohesive tale.

[Maurizio Manco · Rating 3 out of 5]

“La vita degli altri era più facile.” (p. 288)

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ernst Weiss’s novel FRANZISKA is about the difficulties of reconciling art and life. The title character is a strong-willed and brilliant pianist who has little time for love. When Erwin, with whom she only later falls in love, brings her flowers, she puts them all in the bottom drawer of her bureau, where they naturally wither and die.

She eventually finds that love can have a place, too, and almost gives up her art to stay with Erwin. They are not, however, a match. He is assiduous but shallow and unimaginative and cannot decide between Franziska and Hedy, the latter of whom is as shallow as he is. Both women are stronger than he is, and his vacillations cause all three of them much anxiety.

Death also plays a key role, as it does in BOËTIUS VON ORLAMÜNDE. The novel begins with the death of Franziska’s mother, after which Franziska becomes obsessed and driven by her art, and it ends with Hedy dying in Franziska’s arms.

I recommend this novel to anyone with an interest in early 20th-century literature in German.

[Heleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

De voorplaat op het boek doet kitschachtig aan. Zo ook de zinnen in het boek. Of ze je willen afstoten. Alles wordt gepersonificeerd. Bld. 58 ' In lenteachtige onrust steeg de maan boven de verlaten schotsvelden uit; landweggetjes, omzoomd met populieren, stapten ernstig naast de spoordijk voort; zware slagbomen met honingkleurige lantaarns hadden hun beschermende handen over de weg gelegd.' en op bld. 85:' Op datzelfde moment kwam de slaap, die zijn zware vleugels over haar ogen legde. Die ogen konden zich nu niet meer over het plotselinge en toch langverwachte, het felbegeerde en toch met veel moeite aan haar verstand ontworstelde gevoel van liefde verbazen.'

Te veel heftige sterke emoties. Gelukkig is er Constanza die het wat naar normale proporties terug brengt.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book written by one of Kafka's mates, then promptly forgotten about for 80 years. It's reprinted on ace indie Pushkin Press, champions of obscure and neglected European fiction. (Their books are very appealingly presented too.)
Like Kafka the writing can be quite claustrophobic but the descriptive passages are subtler and more atmospheric. There's some particularly evocative sections about Prague which should strike a chord with anyone familiar with that city.
Definitely worth a read.