Zwischen neun und neun

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

36901

Title

Zwischen neun und neun

Language

de

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

Set in early 20th-century Vienna, this novel follows Stanislaus Demba, a man falsely imprisoned for theft. After escaping, he navigates a society obsessed with punishment, struggling to survive while grappling with the injustice of a system that brands him a criminal despite his innocence.

Summary up to 500 words

In Leo Perutz's *Zwischen neun und neun*, the narrative unfolds in a gritty Viennese setting, centering on Stanislaus Demba, a man unjustly convicted of theft and forced to wear handcuffs. The story opens in a grocery shop where Demba, appearing disheveled and nervous, attempts to purchase simple provisions. His erratic behavior—entering with his elbow and hesitating to pay—raises suspicion, yet the elderly owner, Frau Püchl, eventually discovers he has paid and left only the food. Demba flees the city to evade the police, seeking refuge with Steffi Prokop, a young woman who loves him despite his criminal record. Together, they attempt to saw through the steel handcuffs that mark him as a convict, symbolizing his societal exile. Demba delivers a passionate monologue against the concept of punishment, arguing that true justice should prevent crime rather than punish it after the fact. He illustrates the cruelty of the system with a harrowing story about a mother wrongly fined for an accident involving her child, noting how such punishment destroys the innocent rather than the guilty. His hands, described as having lived a life of frantic activity and suffering, are the focal point of his tragedy; he believes they are permanently shamed, forcing him to hide them from the world forever. Their desperate efforts to free Demba are interrupted by the arrival of police officers. In the ensuing struggle, Demba falls from the roof of the building where he is hiding. The handcuffs break during the fall, and he is arrested. The narrative concludes with a reflection on Demba's hands, which finally find rest in death after a life of struggle. The text is framed by contemporary critical acclaim, with newspapers praising the work as a masterpiece for men that captures the spirit of its time. Perutz's novel explores themes of injustice, the dehumanizing nature of the penal system, and the resilience of the human spirit against an unforgiving society.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

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https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36901.epub.noimages

Local file path

data/epubs/pg36901.epub

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2026-07-04 10:50 UTC

Categories

• Psychology
• Social Classes
• Vienna
• Social Structure