Die Engel mit dem Spleen

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

63100

Title

Die Engel mit dem Spleen

Language

de

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

Set in a fractured 1920s Europe, Kasimir Edschmid's "Die Engel mit dem Spleen" weaves a darkly satirical tale of crime, passion, and societal decay. The narrative juxtaposes the absurdity of modern mechanization with timeless human emotions, exploring how the loss of traditional values and the rise of industrial brutality corrupt the soul. With a tone oscillating between the grotesque and the romantic, the novel challenges readers to confront the "spleen" or capricious whims that drive history, questioning whether true heroism...

Summary up to 500 words

Kasimir Edschmid's "Die Engel mit dem Spleen" opens with a stark warning: the story is a fantastical assemblage of crimes and improbabilities, told from a moving train carriage smelling of oranges and cigarettes. The narrator, a weary observer, introduces a world where the hunger of the stock market and the industrial might of figures like Creusot and Stinnes have erased the memory of a more humane past. In this era, passions are cheap as apples, and cold hearts are admired. The narrative follows a young woman trapped in a "phantastische Angelegenheit" (fantastic affair), her life infected by a profound melancholy that defies the era's barbaric progress. She represents the tragic fate of women who, granted the freedom of men, are instead reduced to caricatures, their delicate charms destroyed by the brutality of the times. The plot thickens with the introduction of Captain Pound, a one-legged veteran of the Spanish-American War who carries his amputated leg like a trophy. He oversees a bizarre, almost ceremonial transport of a coffin across the sea, a scene filled with camels, parrots, and a surreal procession that ends in a shocking display of suicide by the crew. The mystery of the coffin's contents and the captain's obsession with a broken chain drive the story forward. The chain, a symbol of fate, becomes the catalyst for a violent confrontation involving a woman named Grace and a man named Good. The narrative delves into the psychology of these characters, contrasting the "angelic" women of legend with the "furies" of social enlightenment who hunt through the streets. Edschmid critiques the literature of his time, which he feels has abandoned the depiction of women who elevate the heart for those who bring only destruction. He references literary giants like Balzac and Dostoevsky to illustrate how great art often exposes the criminality hidden within noble souls. The story moves between the high seas, where the "Leviathan" ship witnesses a strange ritual, and the intimate, claustrophobic spaces of train cars and private apartments. The climax involves a desperate struggle for a chain, a fight between the "spleen" of the girl and the blind worship of the man, resulting in tragedy and the death of Good. Captain Pound, shattered by the events, retreats into a mental asylum, finding solace only in the sounds of the harbor and the memory of Grace. The novel concludes with a reflection on the nature of love, which can be both a destructive force and a redemptive one, capable of turning a "raw sea vagabond" into a man capable of deep sorrow. Through its fragmented, dreamlike structure, the book serves as a critique of a civilization that has lost its way, where the only remaining mysteries are the inexplicable acts of the human heart.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

Download URL

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63100.epub.noimages

Local file path

data/epubs/pg63100.epub

Download EPUB

Downloaded at

2026-07-04 23:08 UTC

Categories

• Classics
• Fiction