''Rock Crystal'' (; 1845) is a

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

by Austrian writer

Adalbert Stifter Adalbert Stifter (; 23 October 1805 – 28 January 1868) was a Bohemian- Austrian writer, poet, painter, and pedagogue. He was notable for the vivid natural landscapes depicted in his writing and has long been popular in the German-speaking wo ...

, about two children who become lost in a snowstorm in the Alps on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christma ...

. It influenced

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

. Mann called Stifter "one of the most extraordinary, the most enigmatic, the most secretly daring and the most strangely gripping narrators in world literature". Poet

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, ...

wrote: "To bring off, as Stifter does, a story of this kind, with its breathtaking risks of appalling banalities, is a great feat. What might so easily have been a tear-jerking melodrama becomes in his hands a quiet and beautiful parable about the relation of people to places, of man to nature." The story's power, according to author

Susan Choi Susan Choi (born 1969) is an American novelist. She is the author of several acclaimed novels, including ''The Foreign Student'' (1998), ''American Woman (novel), American Woman'' (2003), and ''Trust Exercise'' (2019), which won the National Book ...

, arises not from danger, but from "catastrophe's quiet avoidance: from the series of small miracles by which the children survive".

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century. Her work ...

praised Stifter as a "friend of reality" and "the greatest landscape painter in literature" for his avoidance of generalities and impressions in favor of sensory details. In an unpublished review of an English translation she praised "the strange, innocent wisdom of Stifter's work". It was translated into English in 1945 by

Elizabeth Mayer Elizabeth Wolff Mayer (1884 – 14 March 1970) was a German-born American translator and editor, closely associated with W. H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, and other writers and musicians. After emigrating to the United States in the 1940s ...

and

Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American Modernism, modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for its formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. In 1968 Nobel Prize in Li ...

, re-issued by

Pushkin Press Pushkin Press is a British-based publishing house dedicated to publishing novels, essays, memoirs and children's books. The London-based company was founded in 1997 and is notable for publishing authors such as Stefan Zweig, Marcel Aymé, Antal ...

in 2001 and the ''

New York Review of Books New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

'' in 2008. An earlier translation from 1914 by

Lee M. Hollander Lee Milton Hollander (November 8, 1880 – October 19, 1972) was an American philologist who specialized in Old Norse studies. Hollander was for many years head of the Department of Germanic Languages at the University of Texas at Austin. ...

is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

. It has been adapted to film and TV a number of times: in 1949 as the film ''

Mountain Crystal ''Mountain Crystal'' () is a 1949 Austrian-German historical drama film directed by Harald Reinl and featuring a cast of unknown actors including Franz Eichberger, Hans Renz and Cilli Greif. It is a mountain film based on the 1845 novella ''Roc ...

'' (directed by

Harald Reinl Harald Reinl (8 July 1908 in Bad Ischl, Austria – 9 October 1986 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain) was an Austrian film director. He is known for the films he made based on Edgar Wallace and Karl May books (see Karl May movies and Edgar Wallace ...

); in 1954 as the TV movie ''Bergkristall'' (director:

Albert Lippert Albert Lippert (1901-1978) was a German stage, television and film actor. He was the manager of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus between 1948 and 1955. Selected filmography * '' Cruiser Emden'' (1932) as the "Emden" officer * ''Schlußakkord'' (1936 ...

); in 1974 as the TV movie ''Bergkristall'' by Paul Stockmeier; in 1999 as the TV movie ' by

Maurizio Zaccaro Maurizio Zaccaro (born 8 May 1952 in Milan, Italy) is an Italian film director, cinematographer, film editor, and screenwriter. Biography Maurizio Zaccaro was born in Milan. After ending his study at the Milan Film School (1977) he took on work ...

; and in 2004 as the film ''

Rock Crystal Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical fo ...

'' by

Joseph Vilsmaier Joseph Vilsmaier (, 24 January 1939 – 11 February 2020) was a German film director who began his career as a technician and cameraman. He is internationally known for films such as ''Comedian Harmonists (film), Comedian Harmonists''. Life Bo ...

. It inspired

Sylvano Bussotti Sylvano Bussotti (1 October 1931 – 19 September 2021) was an Italian composer of contemporary classical music, also a painter, set and costume designer, opera director and manager, writer and academic teacher. His compositions employ graphic n ...

's ''Bergkristall'' (1972), a ballet in one act and seven scenes premièred by the

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra () is a German radio orchestra. Affiliated with the ''Norddeutscher Rundfunk'' (NDR; North German Broadcasting), the orchestra is based at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany. Earlier the ensemble was call ...

under

Bruno Maderna Bruno Maderna (born Bruno Grossato, 21 April 1920 – 13 November 1973) was an Italian composer, conductor and academic teacher. Life Maderna was born Bruno Grossato in Venice but later decided to take the name of his mother, Caterina Carolina M ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

in 1973, the music of which was adapted from that of an earlier work, ''Nottetempo con lo scherzo e una rose'' (1953–1957), for voice and chamber orchestra.

References

External links

, contained in ''The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 08''), tr. Lee M. Hollander, 1914.
''Rock Crystal''
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

(scanned book original edition), contained i
''The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 08''
tr. Lee M. Hollander, 1914. * 1845 novels 19th-century Austrian novels Austrian novels adapted into films Christmas novels Novellas by Adalbert Stifter NYRB Classics Sylvano Bussotti Alps in fiction {{1850s-novel-stub