Narrative
Innocens
Not translated into English
Ferdinand von Saar · 1866
Opening lines
Am südlichen Ende Prags, auf einem gegen die Moldau felsig abstürzenden Hügel, erhebt sich ernst und düster die Wyschehrader Zitadelle.
At the southern end of Prague, on a hill that drops in rocky cliffs towards the Vltava, the citadel of Vyšehrad rises, stern and gloomy.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from projekt-gutenberg.org
Synopsis
A young lieutenant is sent for a weekend to command the guard of an old fortress above Prague. The place is almost empty, and the only man who intrigues him is the priest of the citadel, whose sermon he hears one Sunday. During a later guard duty, he makes his acquaintance, visits him regularly and obtains from him the account of what brought him there.
Context
Written in 1865, the text appeared the following year in Heidelberg with Weiß, under the title Innocens. Ein Lebensbild, in a slim volume of eighty-four pages. It was the first prose work of its author, who until then had published only a tragedy judged unperformable. It shows the influence of Stifter and draws on the guard duties he had himself performed at the Vyšehrad citadel. The volume was reissued in 1874, then placed in 1877 at the head of a collection of five stories.
Who it is for
Eighty pages, in a slow prose without effects. One must accept that a framed narrative takes its time before giving the floor to the person it is about.
Prizes and reception
A succès d'estime on its publication; it opens its author's first collection of short stories and remains one of his most widely read tales.
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