
A weary painter writes home from his brief return to the town of his youth, describing the strange mix of familiarity and alienation that greets him at every turn. In his letters he paints vivid pictures of the old family house—its sturdy gable, carved woodwork, and the sun‑lit attic room where a harp once sang and a solemn Christ‑on‑the‑Sea canvas hangs, forever eluding his brush. Through his observations we glimpse the lingering influence of his mother’s rigid piety, the quiet tensions between his free‑spirited father and the austere aunt, and the way childhood memories surface in the scent of chestnut trees and the echo of rain‑splattered streets.
The correspondence also reveals his yearning to share the city’s modest charms with his sister, inviting her to wander cobbled lanes despite the drizzle that turns the pavement into a mosaic of puddles. His voice balances affection, humor, and a subtle melancholy, offering a window into an artist’s inner world as he navigates family expectations and his own creative longing.
Language
de
Duration
~2 hours (162K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Books project.)
Release date
2021-10-09
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
1821–1895
A 19th-century German writer whose work survives in a single known novel, she wrote in letters, memory, and reflection rather than grand drama. Her surviving book follows an artist returning home and looking closely at family, art, and the feelings tied to the past.
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