
audiobook
The story opens on a bleak autumn road, where a weary cavalry officer and his companions ride through a desolate landscape of fading light and ruined forts. Their conversation drifts between formal courtly talk and fragmented memories of mothers, lovers, and distant homelands, while a small French rider clings to a single red rose as a symbol of fleeting hope. The narrative threads together the uneasy camaraderie of soldiers from many lands, the haunting refrain of an old folk song, and the lingering ache of a young noble longing to return to a beloved named Magdalena.
Through lyrical, almost poem‑like passages, the novel captures the tension between duty and desire, the weight of honor versus the pull of personal longing. Listeners are drawn into a world where every rustle of saddle leather and distant horn hints at deeper stories yet to unfold, inviting them to linger on the melancholy beauty of love, war, and the thin line that separates them.
Language
de
Duration
~15 minutes (15K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Norbert H. Langkau, Markus Brenner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2007-12-26
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1875–1926
A restless, searching voice in modern poetry, this Prague-born writer turned solitude, wonder, and spiritual unease into lines that still feel intimate and alive. He is best known for works such as Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus, and Letters to a Young Poet.
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