Eduard von Keyserling

Eduard Graf von Keyserling, 1900 (Painting of Lovis Corinth, Munich, Neue Pinakothek)

Eduard Graf von Keyserling (May 14, 1855 September 28, 1918) was a Baltic German fiction writer and dramatist and an exponent of literary Impressionism.

Biography

Keyserling was born at Schloss Tels-Paddern (now in Aizpute Municipality), Courland Governorate, then part of the Russian Empire, now Kalvene parish, Liepaja District, Latvia. He belonged to an ancient family of Baltic German nobility and was a cousin of the philosopher Hermann Keyserling. He died in Munich, Bavaria.

Keyserling's early novels Fräulein Rosa Herz. Eine Kleinstadtliebe (1887) and Die dritte Stiege (1892) were influenced by Naturalism. The later novels are more finely nuanced and less interested in assembling details. He is always interested in the interplay of light and natural objects. His novels and novellas are usually set in the German Baltic provinces, both in the noble houses and gardens and also in the fir forests and the outdoors generally. Most of his novels are suffused with a certain melancholy. They are peopled by minor aristocrats. Sometimes there are contrasting figures from a less exalted class; often this is a "child of nature," a person uncorrupted by civilization. Frequently there is a clash of generations. His novellas and novels, after 1902, place Keyserling at the forefront of German literary Impressionism. His essays on general and cultural questions, like his theater plays, are forgotten.

Keyserling enjoyed a literary reputation both in Germany and in the United States. His novels, translated into English in the late 1920s, were reviewed by literary critics, particularly in newspapers of record. His works were edited and anthologized for use in language pedagogy, perhaps as much for their accessible style as for their appealing story lines. His language is unusally chaste and concise. Sentences are never very long or complex.

A subtle and elegant stylist, Keyserling's narrative is unforgettable for its evocative ambience and "feel." His most emblematic work is perhaps Fürstinnen (Princesses), only superficially related to the typical German 19th century Schlossroman (the novel set in a castle or manor house). Somehow midway between Ivan Turgenev and Franz Kafka, there is a certain pessimistic kinship between Keyserling and Anton Chekhov.

Works

Works Translated into English

https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/record/uuid:c8ac8d45-942e-4193-a2ca-88cbe9e92a83

https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/record/uuid:eaa8d49c-4c6b-4ec5-8b6d-103b3cc8c4f8

https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/record/uuid:6e569a34-7c6b-4409-af17-7806eb41a171

forthcoming

Notes

Regarding personal names: Graf was a title before 1919, but now is regarded as part of the surname. It is translated as Count. Before the August 1919 abolition of nobility as a legal class, titles preceded the full name when given (Graf Helmuth James von Moltke). Since 1919, these titles, along with any nobiliary prefix (von, zu, etc.), can be used, but are regarded as a dependent part of the surname, and thus come after any given names (Helmuth James Graf von Moltke). Titles and all dependent parts of surnames are ignored in alphabetical sorting. The feminine form is Gräfin.

Further reading