First published on the eve of the First World War, Keyserling's masterpiece offers a vivid portrait of a society on the verge of dissolution.
A group of German aristocrats gathers at a seaside village on the Baltic Sea for a summer holiday in the early years of the twentieth century. The characters represent a cross-section of the upper classes of imperial Germany: a philandering baron, his jealous wife, a gallant cavalry officer, the elderly widow of a general, a cynical government official, a lady’s companion. Their lives, even on holiday, are regulated by rigid protocol and archaic codes of honour.
But their quiet, disciplined world is thrown into disarray by the unexpected presence of Doralice, a young countess who has rebelled against social constraints by escaping from an arranged marriage and running away with a bourgeois artist.
Gary Miller's new translation will find a new generation of readers for this neglected German classic.
About the author
Gary Miller is a senior lecturer in the history department at the University of Massachusetts Boston and an associate professor of liberal arts at Berklee College of Music. He teaches courses in European history and film studies. He has translated Waves by Eduard von Keyserling for Dedalus.
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