The Jew's Beech

By Annette von Droste-Hülshoff

Book Overview

Based on a true story, The Jew's Beech centres on two brutal murders in rural Westphalia - the first of a local forester and the second of a Jewish moneylender near a beech tree - and the impact these events have on the life of Friedrich Mergel, a local herdsman with a turbulent family history.

A prototype of the murder mystery and a thoughtful examination of village society, this intriguing novella contains hints of the Gothic and the uncanny - ominous thunderstorms, mysterious disappearances, eerie doppelg?ngers and grisly discoveries in the depths of the forest - as well as a famously ambiguous climax.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 184749918X
• ISBN13: 9781847499189
• Release Date: June 2024
• Publisher: Alma Books
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

things we do not know ,do not matter - in literature

you can read the book only once, you can read it more than that. it doesn't matter, you will have the same feeling. we cannot understand past events. 3 men die while the story develops, but we can never be sure about the reason of the murder (we're not even sure if we can categorize all these deaths as murders). a story that is set in a village of treefellers in the germany of the 18-th century. we witness the developing of the main character, from his childhood to his death, but there still are important facts we don't understand in his life. cleverly written, still using the romantic alter ego motive, this biedermeier story is perhaps one of the best pieces in german 19th century literature. in my opinion the technique of researching past crimes used by A. DROSTE-HULSHOFF resembles much to those used by G.G. MARQUEZ in "the chronic of an announced death" and M.V. LLOSA in "who killed palonimo moliero".