
In a richly painted salon of early‑twentieth‑century Berlin, a gathering of aristocrats, artists, and strangers circles a towering fireplace. The white‑clad princess, poised beside a gleaming samovar, becomes the focal point of whispered negotiations over a coveted Madonna canvas. Around her, a Viennese gentleman, a Slavic voice, and a German painter trade polite platitudes that ripple with an undercurrent of longing and uncertainty.
Their conversation drifts from the scent of oversized flowers in bronze bowls to the weight of memory in fading palaces. Each remark—whether about the silence of the German language or the imagined alchemy of turning gold into paper—reveals hidden desires, the fragile pride of status, and a yearning for something beyond the polished surface. Listeners are invited into this delicate dance of art, ego, and quiet melancholy, where every gesture hints at deeper stories waiting to unfold.
Language
de
Duration
~1 hours (81K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Jana Srna, Carlos Valiente, mcbax and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by Bielefeld University.)
Release date
2010-02-06
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1875–1926
Best known for poems that feel intimate, searching, and strangely timeless, this Austrian writer helped shape modern literature in German. His work moves between beauty, loneliness, faith, art, and the inner life with unusual calm and intensity.
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