''Der Stechlin'' () is a
novel
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
by
Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language Literary realism, realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he i ...
written between 1895 and 1897, and first published in the
literary journal ''
Ãœber Land und Meer''. It was published in book form in 1898. It is Fontane's second longest novel, and his last novel published before he died, about a year after its publication.
Its central figure is the aging Dubslav von Stechlin, widowed for thirty years and living alone in his somewhat dilapidated mansion near the shore of
Lake Stechlin, to be imagined as being in the neighbourhood of Fontane's native
Neuruppin
Neuruppin (, , in contrast to ":de:Alt Ruppin, Old Ruppin"; ; North Brandenburgisch dialect, Brandenburgisch: ''Reppin'') is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, the administrative seat of Ostprignitz-Ruppin district. It is the birthplace of the noveli ...
. Dubslav, a man of honest and humorous character, refuses to take himself seriously, and lives modestly and contentedly in contact with his elderly valet Engelke, his politically progressive vicar Lorenzen, and Krippenstapel, the most Prussian of Prussian schoolmasters. Dubslav's only son, Woldemar, is a captain in a cavalry regiment of the guard in Berlin.
Der Stechlin
/ref>
Through the character of Stechlin, Fontane depicted an ideal type of a patriarchal family head of Prussian Junker
Junker (, , , , , , ka, იუნკერი, ) is a noble honorific, derived from Middle High German , meaning 'young nobleman'Duden; Meaning of Junker, in German/ref> or otherwise 'young lord' (derivation of and ). The term is traditionally ...
.
References
External links
Personenverzeichnis
Mi-Ae Chon: ''Charakter und Funktion Melusines in Fontanes Altersroman „Der Stechlin“''
1897 German novels
Novels set in Berlin
Novels first published in serial form
Works originally published in German magazines
Works originally published in literary magazines
Novels by Theodor Fontane
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