Narrative
The Poor Fiddler
Der arme Spielmann
Franz Grillparzer · 1847
Opening lines
In Wien ist der Sonntag nach dem Vollmonde im Monat Juli jedes Jahres samt dem darauf folgenden Tage ein eigentliches Volksfest, wenn je ein Fest diesen Namen verdient hat.
In Vienna the Sunday after the full moon in the month of July each year, together with the day following, is a true people's festival, if ever a festival deserved the name.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from zeno.org
Synopsis
A man of letters curious about crowds notices, at the Brigittenau fair in the suburbs of Vienna, an old violinist who plays out of tune and whom no one listens to. He follows him to his lodgings in the Leopoldstadt and asks him for his story. Son of an Aulic Councillor who thought him incapable, Jakob was relegated to a job as a copyist; the singing of a young girl heard in a courtyard made him take up again the violin he had hated as a child.
Context
Begun in 1831 and interrupted several times, the text was not completed until 1842. In the last months of 1846, the author sent it to Gustav Heckenast, who published it in 1847 in Pest in the almanac Iris bearing the date of the following year, which explains the double date still given to it. It is the second and last of his two prose narratives. Critics read in it a construction close to sonata form, and the character of the violinist bears traits of his author.
Who it is for
A short narrative, originally about fifty pages. The narrator, an established man of letters, is not neutral: he seeks himself in the man he questions.
Prizes and reception
One of the most celebrated and most durably read of its author's texts; Stifter hailed it as a masterpiece, and Kafka prized it.
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