Venice by Night... "The Ghost-Seer" by Friedrich Schiller
(Alma Classics edition, translated with an introduction by Andrew Brown)
The rise of Gothic fiction in the second half
of the 18th Century, also referred to as “first wave Gothic”, is generally
portrayed as a peculiarly English phenomenon.
This is hardly surprising, considering that the novel widely (if not
uncontroversially) considered to be the first Gothic novel is Horace Walpole’s The
Castle of Otranto (1764). It
set the blueprint for a dark literary genre, obsessed with terror, death and
the otherworldly, and was soon followed by works in the same vein by other
English authors such Ann Radcliffe, William Beckford and Matthew “Monk”
Lewis. It would be a mistake, however,
to consider this movement in ‘splendid isolation’ from what was happening in
the rest of Europe. Indeed, some of the
defining elements of the Gothic are shared with Continental literature of the
period, shaped by the ideals of Early Romanticism and the proto-Romantic Sturm
und Drang movement. German readers,
in particular, had a particular appetite for horror novels, some of which were
translated into English or adapted by English authors. In writing “The Monk”, Lewis drew upon
homegrown Gothic, but also upon German ‘horrid novels’.
One of the seminal works in the Continental
canon is Der Geisterseher – Aus den Papieren des Grafen von O** (generally rendered in English as “The Ghost-Seer” or “The Apparitionist”), a strange novel by the poet, dramatist, novelist and philosopher Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805). It first appeared in instalments in the
journal Thalia between 1787 and 1789, only to be abandoned and left unfinished
by Schiller who, apparently, developed a great antipathy to his own creation. It has just been published on the
Alma Classics imprint, in a translation by Andrew Brown who also provides an
introduction, placing the novel in the philosophical and cultural context of
its period.
The protagonist of the novel is the Prince of
------------------ who, we are given understand, is the third in line to the
throne of Protestant state. On a sojourn
in Venice, the Prince becomes involved in a secret society known as the
“Bucentauro”, a group of debauched members of high society, amongst whom count
several influential prelates. He also
falls in love with a mysterious “Greek” woman.
All of this, however, could well be a front for an even shadowier
Catholic group intent on converting the Prince to “the only Church outside
of which there is no salvation”, fleecing him of his family’s riches in the
process. The Prince is, in fact, being
stalked by an elusive figure he refers to as “the Armenian” who is, according
to some accounts, a protean spy for the Inquisition and, according to others, a
Faust or Melmoth-like figure who has achieved immortality through devilish
means.
 |
| Arthur von Ramberg (1819-1875), Der Prinz (illustration for Schiller's The Ghost-Seer) |
It all sounds very convoluted, and it is. On his part, Schiller purposely adds to the
confusion through the narrative devices he opts for. The first part of the story is recounted in
the first person by the Count of O***, a friend and companion of the Prince. After the Count leaves Venice to attend to
personal business, the story continues in epistolary form, through letters sent
by Baron von F_________ , a member of the Prince’s retinue, to the Count,
updating him on the latest developments in connection with the Prince. Both narrators are, by their own admission,
unreliable narrators, who do not always understand the strange goings-on in
which they find themselves. The
narrators cannot trust their senses – we, as readers, cannot take them at their
word. This is truly a novel where, to
quote the Bard, “nothing is, but what is not”.
The work’s fragmentary nature is compounded by the fact that it was left
unfinished. Reaching the last page
of book feels like stepping out of a
dream or hallucination, whose details and meaning lie tantalisingly out of
reach.
The philosophy behind “The Ghost-Seer” is also
curiously ambivalent. It is often held
up as an example of Schiller’s Enlightenment ideals – to me, this is not that
obvious. Take the author’s approach
towards the supernatural. On the one
hand, much of the novel’s atmosphere (and its title) is drawn from the
otherworldly aspects of the plot, with one of its key scenes a seance-like
occult ceremony presided by a shady character based on the Count of
Cagliostro. Subsequently,
Radcliffe-like, Schiller has his Prince unravel the supernatural elements,
revealing them to be mere smoke and mirrors.
Yet, the explanation is so complicated, that like the Count, we are
almost tempted to reject it in favour of a belief that something otherworldly
must have been going on. The same could
be said of Schiller’s attitude towards religion. Unsurprisingly for a Gothic novel, Catholics
get quite a lot of bad press. But Schiller seems equally critical both of
the drearier, stricter strains of Protestantism and, at the other extreme, of ‘freethinking’ unbelief.
For an unfinished, slim novel(la), The
Ghost-Seer has proven surprisingly influential, possibly because of the
questions it poses only to leave unanswered.
It gave rise to a particular sub-genre of the Gothic – the “secret
society novel”, variously referred to in German as the Bundesroman or
the Geheimbundroman. It is also one of the first works to exploit
Venice as a backdrop for dark and/or supernatural fiction, a tradition which continued with E.T.A.
Hoffmann, Heinrich Zschokke and in the 20th century, Thomas Mann and Daphne du
Maurier. La Serenissima it may be
called, but its alleys and canals, decaying palaces and hidden campielli
whisper strange secrets, if only one were to listen...
 |
| Friedrich Nerly, View of the Grand Canal |
***
Schiller’s
An die Freude was famously set to music by Ludwig van Beethoven in the
choral finale of his 9th Symphony. Apart
from that, however, there are few famous settings of his poetry, although one
should mention Franz Schubert’s forty-four lieder based on Schiller’s
poems.
On the other hand, the writer’s plays have
proven particularly popular in opera adaptations. Verdi was a particular fan: I Masnadieri is based on The
Robbers, Giovanna d’Arco on The Maid of Orleans, Luisa Miller on Intrigue
and Love, Don Carlos on the eponymous play and La Forza del Destino,
partly, on Wallenstein.
Here’s then, a Schiller musical “dessert”,
First on is a scene from the Third Act of I Masnadieri,
the work which, together with The Robbers, is most often cited as an example
of Schiller’s “Gothic” streak.
Gioacchino Rossini is best known for his comic operas.
However, his last theatrical work, Guillaume Tell based on Schiller’s Wilhelm
Tell, is a grand opera rich in Romantic ideals, including several “nature scenes”
reflecting the concept of the Sublime.
To end, a contemporary
work by composer and cellist Graham Waterhouse. Composed in 2005, Der Handschuh is a melodrama
for cello and speaking voice, composed to mark the 200th anniversary of Schiller’s
death.
No comments:
Post a Comment