Der arme spielmann as autobiography

  • "The Poor Musician" is an autobiographical novella by Austria's famous dramatist and poet Franz Grillparzer (): Rounded and compacted, and yet.
  • A sort-of autobiography of an Austrian musician, originally published in the mid-nineteenth century.
  • GRILLPARZER'S DER ARME SPIELMANN.

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    Der arme Spielmann

    November 14,


    Franz Grillparzer ()


    Regarded by many as a leading light of Austrian literature (including by Peter Handke, who sent me to him in the first place), indeed at times as Austria's national poet, Franz Grillparzer was primarily an innovative dramatist,(*) though he also wrote criticism, essays, poetry and some fiction, including Der arme Spielmann (The Poor Musician, , available in English translation), which became a favorite of Franz Kafka. Son of a strict and very reserved lawyer who died fairly early, condemning his son to a lifetime of tedious jobs in the Austro-Hungarian governmental bureaucracy, Grillparzer was one of those unfortunate human beings who dare not be happy. An introvert and highly sensitive, dominated by his father and obliged to study law, he never quite got over his fear of disappointing his father, indeed of disappointing anyone. It appears that his fears prevented him from proposing marriage to the love of his life; he

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    In "The Poor Musician", Franz Grillparzer designs a moving portrait of the fate of a poor musician living in a world of social injustice and cultural oblivion. The literary style Grillparzers is characterized by a haunting language and emotional depth as it addresses the themes of human dignity, suffering, and hope. Located in the context of Viennese classical, this drama, reflects deep social questions while offering a universal voice to individual existence. Through a precise character drawing and symbolic elements, it gives the suffering figure of the playman a tragic dimension and opens a space for philosophical reflections on the role of man in society. Franz Grillparzer, a significant representative of Austrian literature and Viennese classical, was known for his profound considerations of human nature and social conditions. Born in Vienna in , he was not only a playwright, but also a critical thinker, often marked by personal and political struggles. His own life situation as

  • der arme spielmann as autobiography

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    Der arme Spielmann

    Franz Grillparzer

    With a foreword bygd August Sauer and colour plates bygd Franz Windhager

    • 13 x 21 cm, 78 pages
    • hardback
    • ISBN
    • Out of Stock

    € 9,90 (D)€ 10,20 (Ö)

    The musical novella The Poor Fiddler transports the reader to 19th-century Vienna. The Austrian dramatist Franz Grillparzer () tells of an encounter with an old man who plays the violin for visitors to a fair. Woven into the musician’s heartfelt performance is a bittersweet love story, whose progress we soon hear in the fiddler’s own words. This partly autobiographical story, fryst vatten an “integral part of classical storytelling” and was revered as a masterpiece by such prestigious authors as Adalbert Stifter and Franz Kafka.