''Siegwart, eine Klostergeschichte'' ("Siegwart, a Tale of the Cloister", 1776) was a novel by

Johann Martin Miller Johann Martin Miller (3 December 1750 in Ulm – 21 June 1814 in Ulm) was a German theologian and writer. He is best known for his novel ''Siegwart'', which became one of the most successful books at the time. Life Miller, the son of the Ev ...

. It was a bestseller. Dedicated "to all noble souls", and clearly imitating '' Die Leiden des jungen Werthers'', the novel tells two parallel love stories, one happy, the other sad (as foretold by a gypsy woman at the beginning of Part Two). It was published by Weygand at

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

Plot introduction

A man from Oettingen in Bayern named Xaver Siegwart, the youngest of five siblings, has grown up on the banks of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

after the early death of his mother. Restless and active as a boy, excited at the idea of becoming a hunter like his father, he becomes an impressionable youth, in love with silence and the natural world. He accompanies his father to a Capuchin monastery where he is visiting his friend Father Anton. After walking through a beautiful wood, they arrive just as the sun is setting among the oaks, and the impressions made by the play of light on wet cobwebs, the sounds of the bells, and the saintliness of the monks, lead him to religion. Years later he travels to

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (; Austro-Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an Independent city#Germany, independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan ...

with the fixed purpose of entering the ministry. But his plans are disrupted by the social whirl of Ingolstadt, firstly by his entanglement with a woman named Sophie who has fallen violently in love with him, and secondly when he himself falls in love with Mariane Fischer. The match is encouraged by his friend Kronhelm, who admits his own love for Xaver's sister Therese. Mariane returns Xaver's passion, but her father, a court councillor, wishes her to marry another councillor's son, and after facing her intransigence he forces her to enter a convent, where she falls gravely ill. Xaver plans to elope with her, but he is given false news of her death, and he himself enters a monastery. Four years later he encounters her by accident and recognizes her as his Mariane — but she is at the point of death, and soon afterwards he dies also of grief, found sprawled in the moonlight at her grave. This dismal ending is mitigated only by the happy marriage of Kronhelm and Therese Siegwart. An English translation by

Laetitia Matilda Hawkins Laetitia Matilda Hawkins (baptized 8 August 1759 – 22 November 1835) was an English novelist, associated with Twickenham. She was the daughter of Sir John Hawkins, an acquaintance of Samuel Johnson. Hawkins was an outspoken yet highly conserva ...

, ''Siegwart, a Monastic Tale'', appeared in 1806. The most recent German reprint dates from 1971.

External links

''Siegwart''
at

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1776 novels Sentimental novels 18th-century German novels {{18thC-novel-stub