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Villa Eden Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the Villa Eden novel. A total of 236 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 : Villa Eden.by Berthold Auerbach.BOOK I.CHAPTER I.THE APPARITION."Be patient a few:
Villa Eden.by Berthold Auerbach.BOOK I.CHAPTER I.THE APPARITION."Be patient a few: minutes longer! There's a man beckoning to go with us," said the boatman to his pa.s.sengers, two women and one man. The man was gray-haired, of slender form
- 1 Villa Eden.by Berthold Auerbach.BOOK I.CHAPTER I.THE APPARITION."Be patient a few: minutes longer! There's a man beckoning to go with us," said the boatman to his pa.s.sengers, two women and one man. The man was gray-haired, of slender form
- 2 Pranken gave him a condescending nod of congratulation, then added quickly,--"And do you leave entirely out of sight that you quit the army with the rank of Captain? I should lay special stress on the military training. But no, you are not fit for a
- 3 Bella had travelled over a good part of the world. In the company of two Englishwomen she had visited Italy, Greece, and Egypt. She had hired an experienced courier, who relieved her from all care. On her return to the court where her father was grand-equ
- 4 Eric spoke for a long time. Though his varied experience might have taught him a different lesson, he still believed that people always wished to get something in conversation, to gain clearer ideas, and not merely to while away the time. Hence, when he c
- 5 The wife of the Justice was vexed with her husband. He was so animated, and made such keen observations, alone with her and at home, while in society he had hardly a word to say, and let others bear away all the honors."Who is the father-in-law you s
- 6 Was it worth while to have borne such varied experiences and struggles in order to turn a bit of the primeval forest into a cornfield? Still, one consideration drew me toward America. My father's only brother, the proprietor of a manufactory of jewel
- 7 Her personal charms, her cordial and at the same time arch manners, showed to great advantage in the light talk at the breakfast table; and when at intervals she keenly watched Eric, she was surprised at his appearance. Yesterday she had seen him first on
- 8 During a pause, Eric seemed to strike the right key by remarking, that, after such elevated enjoyment in the intercourse with n.o.ble persons and in the wide survey of unbounded nature, there is nothing for the soul but to let the feelings dissolve and di
- 9 "A neighbor's greeting to Herr Sonnenkamp, at Villa Eden."Had Fate granted me a son, I should consider it as a completion of the great blessing, to be able to give him this man as a tutor."CLODWIG, COUNT VON WOLFSGARTEN.WOLFSGARTEN CAS
- 10 Herr Sonnenkamp had that American trait, including in itself so much that is good, of respectful courteousness and considerate care toward his own household and relatives; he went to meet the two ladies at the steps, nodded pleasantly to the lady in black
- 11 CHAPTER II.THE ARROW CAUGHT."Shoot away, my boy, I'll catch the arrow!" the rider called from his horse, and the boy stood still, as if he had seen a miracle. Eric had heard much of Roland's beauty, but he was astonished at the charmin
- 12 The boy stood as if rooted to the spot. In Eric's manner of ordering him to go, there was an air of such irresistible authority that he did not know what to make of it.As Eric went forward, the boy stood motionless, then turned, snapped his fingers,
- 13 "Captain, Doctor, I beg your pardon, what name?" said Sonnenkamp, in introducing him."Dournay."Frau Ceres gave a hardly perceptible nod, and, as if there were no one else present, said in a peevish tone to her husband, that he paid no
- 14 Eric once more gave a brief and concise sketch of his life. Mindful of Clodwig's advice not to say anything about his fancied mission to educate convicts, an incident occurred to him, which he had, in an incomprehensible way, wholly pa.s.sed over bef
- 15 CHAPTER V.A NEW PATRON AND A NEW TUTOR.By Roland's direction his own pony had been saddled, and also a horse for Eric. They mounted, and rode slowly through a part of the village which joined the estate. At the very end of it stood a small vine-cover
- 16 The tone and manner with which Roland presented his new friend to the huntsman, showed that he knew how to take an imperious tone toward his inferiors."Off with your cap," said he to the screamer; "only think, the captain knew by their whim
- 17 Just as they mounted, the huntsman said further,-- "Do you know that your father is buying up the whole mountain? Cursed acc.u.mulation! Your father is buying the whole Pfaffen-street." At the same time, pointing to the far extending wide-spread
- 18 "I regard it as a matter of no consequence," Eric replied, "whether my ancestors belonged to the gentry or not; they were engaged in the common occupations of business and trade, and my immediate ancestors were goldsmiths. The resemblance o
- 19 "Continue," he said, putting a fresh cigar in his mouth."It may seem laughable," resumed Eric, "but it is certainly significant that a prince receives, in his very cradle, a military rank. When reason awakens in him, he sees his f
- 20 Joseph came into the stable, and after representing Eric's parents as veritable saints, he concluded,-- "You ought to be proud, Master Roland; the father educated the prince, and now the son is to educate you.""Open the shutters, quick
- 21 He had wished this very morning to write to his mother that he had come into fairyland,--the fairy land was yet more marvellous than he had himself fancied.Eric depicted with extreme precision, as far as a son could, the character of his mother; how she w
- 22 A little brook, which came down from the mountain and emptied into the river, was made to wind about with such skill, that it kept disappearing and appearing again at unexpected points, saying by its murmur, "Here I am."In the disposition of res
- 23 This outburst was in a bantering tone of contempt and satisfaction.They came to the place called Nice, by the colonnade constructed in the Pompeian style, which extended very far on the second terrace of the orchard."Now I will show you my house,&quo
- 24 Sonnenkamp conducted his guest back into the large work-room, and there said that it had, formerly, been his desire that Roland should have an inclination to enter upon the active life which he himself had now retired from. He spoke of trade. Eric was ama
- 25 "That is the way with children. But such children never make sterling men; therefore I wanted Roland to love plants, as he would then be obliged to learn that there was something which can at no time be neglected or forgotten.""I am rejoice
- 26 CHAPTER XIV.A RIVAL.The dinner was as ceremonious as it had been the day before. Frau Ceres, who appeared again at table, betrayed by no look or word that she had conversed so confidentially with Eric; she addressed, frequently, some brief remark to him;
- 27 "Certainly I shall. I am delighted that the droll little man has so much rascality. It is a perfect satisfaction to play with the villainy and roguery of people, and I should like to have half a dozen such on hand, so as to teach Roland how to deal w
- 28 "Do stop that talk! My mother used to say, that "'Whether houses be great or small.There lies a stone before them all.'"The second gardener, a lean, thin man, with a peaked face, called the squirrel, who often had prayers with the
- 29 The Major thought it unfitting that the great wine-merchant should allow himself to stand as a government-candidate for the chamber of deputies, and that, too, against such a man as Weidmann. Eric gave attention when this name was now again mentioned; it
- 30 "I am now free. Count Clodwig has told me about you, but he has given me a wrong impression of you. Never mind! Every one sees, standing in the centre of his own horizon, his own rainbow. I wished only to say to you, that what one--pardon me--what on
- 31 The priest informed him that he was just following out on the globe the journey of a missionary; and he caused the globe to revolve, while saying this, with his delicate right hand."Perhaps you are not friendly to the missionary spirit?" he aske
- 32 Were every one to act according to his inclination, then should we be sure, at no time, what would become of humanity. The law of G.o.d holds it together, and holds it erect. Here is the significance of the law of G.o.d, here begins the fall, which the ge
- 33 "Really have the position? There's no doubt about it, I tell you--Pooh, pooh; I'll wager something on that. But, I ask your pardon, I won't talk any more--what were you going to say, comrade?""I think we ought not to train hi
- 34 A gleam of pleasure from Eric's eyes rested on the good Fraulein, and at that moment a secret bond of union, a sense of mutual understanding, was formed between them.Accompanied by both as far as the garden-gate, Eric left the house.When the door was
- 35 Bella asked jokingly, whether he might not desire to adopt him as a son. Clodwig declared that he was not disinclined to do so. With a bitter smile, but to all appearance very lively, Bella answered that it would seem very strange for her to have a son on
- 36 Again the conversation reverted to Eric; and Bella was now extremely good-humored. She pitied the man's aged mother, regarded the self-conscious bearing of the youth as in reality timidity; he carried a haughty outside, that he might cover up thereby
- 37 Sonnenkamp expatiated, too, on the many strange things imputed to him; and yet no one had really made the charge: but he himself, together with Pranken, had spread the report, that he was desirous of giving his own name to the castle, the line of the orig
- 38 "Will you permit Herr Dournay to accompany us?" asked Clodwig.Sonnenkamp started as he answered quickly,-- "I have no permission to give the captain, but if you are determined to go, I would ask him as a favor to accompany you, with a promise of return
- 39 "The great question always is, how receptivity itself confers upon one all that is desirable. That would be your princ.i.p.al task, to awaken and to perfect in Roland his power of receptivity. He must first of all, be taught in a regular way. In what he
- 40 CHAPTER XI.STRIVE TO MAKE MONEY.It is not well to hear a man so much spoken of and praised, before seeing him face to face. It seemed incomprehensible to Eric how this man exerted such a wide influence, and impossible for himself to enter into his life. T
- 41 "That you may do; it is a sin to be untrue, and a double sin to be so towards you.""Well then," said Lina, taking off her straw hat, and shaking the curls in her neck, "well then, if you will honestly confess, that Manna made an impression on you at
- 42 The doctor suddenly turned round, and cried:-- "You may yet induce me to put something in print. I am verily of the opinion, that though there must be some consumers who are not producers, there are no graduated German heads that don't want, at some tim
- 43 CHAPTER II.A GREEN TWIG.Os the west side of the convent, under the lofty, wide-spreading, thickly-leaved chestnut-trees, beeches, and lindens, and far in among the firs with their fresh shoots, stationary tables and benches were arranged. Girls in blue dr
- 44 "So much the better," Pranken wanted to say, but luckily he was able to withhold it; he turned to the superior, folded his hands, and stood as if praying her to grant his pet.i.tion. The superior nodded her head several times, and at last said,-- "My c
- 45 The Justice's wife complained that Captain and Doctor Dournay--"what is one to call him--?""Call him simply doctor."That Doctor Dournay, then, had paid a visit to the priest, to the major, and to the physician. The Major's housekeeper had told the b
- 46 Bella extolled now, in the warmest terms, the delicious, spicy cakes which the Justice's wife knew how to make so excellently well; she would like to know the ingredients. The Justice's wife said that she had a particular way of giving them their flavor
- 47 Bella was in very good spirits, and took it in good part. She began with saying, that it was in the highest degree contemptible to make such a stir about the appointment of a private tutor, a personage that must always play a subordinate part, however fin
- 48 Pranken left her, with calm self-satisfaction, to go to Herr Sonnenkamp: he was almost ready to defend Eric since he was already set aside. With great peace of mind he laid his hand on the book in his breast pocket; the man who spoke in it would be conten
- 49 "Your father had written to him a decided refusal before I came, and the letter has been put into the post before this."The boy sat upon the bench in the park, and stared fixedly, the book open in his hand.CHAPTER IX.DEJECTION AND COURAGE IN A CHILD'S
- 50 HELPING ONE'S SELF, OR BEING HELPED.Eric turned homewards, like a man, who, coming out of a saloon illuminated with dazzling brilliancy, to his study where burns a solitary lamp, involuntarily rubs his eyes, which having become accustomed to the greater
- 51 Just as he left the minister, an oldish man, who had been waiting for him under a house-porch, came up to him and greeted him in a very friendly manner. Eric could not call to mind who he was, and the man said that Eric had once done him a good turn in th
- 52 The lighter the morning became, the more confident did Sonnenkamp feel that Roland was floating there a corpse in the river, which was now of a reddish purple, a stream of blood; the far-extending water was nothing but blood! He uttered a deep groan, and
- 53 Roland gave an indirect reply. And now the teamster told him that he himself was an honest fellow, that he had earned by hard work everything which he had upon his back, and he would go hungry and beg, before he would get anything by dishonest means. He a
- 54 He wandered on. He had learned what it was to enjoy the kindness and bounty of poor men, now that he was himself poor and helpless; that was his best experience.The world is beautiful and men are good, even if a hostler could not resist a well-filled purs
- 55 She had never repented leaving her own cla.s.s to marry her husband, she had been too happy for that; but she saw in Eric's position something like a grievous consequence of her own act. Moved by these thoughts, which she never expressed, she said,-- "I
- 56 The family of the professor's wife were at breakfast. Roland drank his coffee out of the cup which had Hermann's name upon it, and Eric said that they must be at the station in an hour, since Herr Sonnenkamp would probably come by the express train: it
- 57 CHAPTER XVI.WE HAVE HIM.While the Major and Eric were sitting together, Sonnenkamp was with the mother in the library; Roland and the aunt, in the recess, had a great book open before them, containing outline drawings of Greek sculpture.The boy now looked
- 58 The whole town lifted up their eyes, as the six persons were going to the station. Sonnenkamp escorted Frau Dournay, the Major the aunt, and Eric held Roland by the hand. They had to wait for the train to come in. Suddenly Professor Einsiedel made his app
- 59 "Give me something to do, something right hard; try and think of something."Eric perceived the boy's state of excitement; sitting down near him, he took his hand, and showed him that life seldom furnished a single deed on which one could employ the who
- 60 "In the sphere of books lies not the heroism,--I believe that the period of heroic development is past,--but the manhood of the new age."Because our influence is exerted through books, there can be no longer any grand, personal manifestation of power."
- 61 Eric replied affirmatively, and Bella stared at him. He knew now why Bella had been so indifferent and unconcerned; he had received money from her husband, and he now ranked, therefore, very differently in her estimation.At dinner he saw Frau Ceres again,
- 62 Eric found great difficulty in keeping his pupil steadily at his lessons, so completely was he taken up with the thought of the journey.The day came for the journey to the convent; it was a bright day of suns.h.i.+ne.Eric requested that he might remain be
- 63 "Your child, whom we may call our child also,--for we love her no less than you do,--is quite well; she is generally yielding and patient too, but sometimes she shows an incomprehensible self-will, amounting almost to stubbornness."A rapid flash from So
- 64 "Yes, yes, that's the way. I know what you are, a child who takes to a stranger child. But enough!"He rose hastily.The parents and Roland left the cell. Manna remained there with Heimchen.Upon the steps, Sonnenkamp said to his wife,-- "This is your do
- 65 The next morning, ordering his horse to be saddled, he mounted and rode towards Clodwig's house.He had scarcely been riding fifteen minutes, when a boy called to him, and brought him a letter. He read it, nodded, and rode in good spirits to the village.C
- 66 "I must, like a child," he began, "tell you of my last observation, and my last trouble. You are not in a hurry? I must honestly confess to you, that nothing in our time vexes me so much, as to find people always in a hurry."Eric set his mind at rest,
- 67 He was sixty-four years old, but seemed still very vigorous. He had the same reason for complaining which all public teachers have, and related with a mingled pride and bitterness that his son, twenty-one years of age, was receiving more than twice the pa
- 68 "It is unpleasant to me to make this declaration in Roland's presence, but I think that he is sufficiently mature to comprehend this matter. I think, I am firmly convinced, that a serious course of study cannot be resumed at a fas.h.i.+onable watering-p
- 69 Eric ordered the horses to be put again to the carriage, and entered it with Roland, who asked,-- "Where are we going?"Eric quieted him with the a.s.surance that he was about to show him a miracle. They drove down the road, where the wind was das.h.i.+n
- 70 The whole region had made use of the castle as a stone-quarry, and the corners had especially suffered, because they contained the best stones. The whole was grown over with shrubbery, the castle-dwelling had wholly disappeared, and the castle itself, ori
- 71 They pa.s.sed a low oak-tree; Roland seized a branch, and shook it, crying "Hang!" and Thistle sprang up, caught the branch with his sharp teeth, and remained hanging to it till Roland told him to let go. Rose performed the same trick, and even outdid h
- 72 It was a merry, exhilarating life into which Eric and Roland were inducted, and when they returned to their strict method of study, there was a deep realization of the fact that they were living in the midst of a merry region, where existence can be easil
- 73 Eric declined, with thanks, these manifestations of friendliness, and took, with Roland the first boat to return to the villa.Roland went into the cabin, and he was soon sound asleep; Eric sat alone upon the deck, and he was troubled with the thought of h
- 74 "I want to work like the masons' apprentices up there. I don't want to eat and drink anything except what they do, and I want to carry loads up and down like them."Eric went to the castle with Roland, but on the way, he said,-- "Roland, your purpose
- 75 This incident seemed to lead the boy's mind to composure. But as they were going home, he asked,--"Now tell me, Eric, what would you do if all this wealth were yours? Can you tell, Eric, now?" "Not exactly. I think I should waste much of it in experim
- 76 Fraulein Milch told of Eric's glory at the singing festival, and the Major said,-- "That's good. At our feasts, singers are very important. But can you sing, 'These holy halls'?"Eric regretted that the air was too low for his voice."Then sing somet
- 77 "I have not been mistaken in you." After a pause he continued:--"I acknowledge fully your considerateness."He did not answer directly the question as to the cause of his confidence, and there was hardly time, for Roland now called Eric to the sitting.
- 78 Lina sang gaily as they sat together in the boat. Her love-songs were given with a sweetness, an abandonment, that Pranken had never heard from her before. Clodwig described her singing to his wife, on his return, as being as simple and beautiful as a fie
- 79 The dwarfs face wore a simple expression, as if he had not understood what was meant.The officer ordered his instant arrest. He complained piteously that the innocent were always the ones to be suspected, and Roland begged that the poor creature might be
- 80 Herr Sonnenkamp returned to his villa like a ruler to his castle where a mutiny has lately broken out. Every step in his house, every glance at a servant, said, I am here again, and with me authority and order.Eric did not lay upon Pranken the blame of wh
- 81 CHAPTER III.THE NEW ALLIES, AND A SUMMER FETE.Hardly two weeks had gone by before the lessons were interrupted again.Frau Ceres, who was generally very quiet and took no interest in anything, often referred to a promise she had made to take Roland to see
- 82 "Yesterday evening the cuira.s.siers of the guard celebrated their annual festival on Rudolph's Hill. His Highness, Prince Leonhard, graced the entertainment with his presence. Among the guests was Herr Sonnenkamp, of Villa Eden, with his highly-respect
- 83 "The human race affords the most abundant material for conversation, and of that race the most inexhaustible matter is furnished by the variety woman. I am not meaning now to speak of Bella, but of myself. I have discovered in this woman an entirely new
- 84 Sonnenkamp smiled; he was pleased to see, that this proud virtue knew so well how to hide his deviations from the straight path.Roland was evidently inclined to break through the strict discipline which Eric had introduced, and which he himself had re-est
- 85 Sonnenkamp also walked about the park in the silent night, inwardly chafing at the thought that there was always something to conceal, for a single expression of Eric's that day had awakened a powerful struggle within him. That expression was, free labor
- 86 "That is new to me, surprisingly new," interposed the Prince, while Clodwig continued:-- "The Russian amba.s.sador informed me that during the Crimean war the rumor was spread--no one knew its origin, and yet it was in all mouths--that every one who ha
- 87 "He differs from him in having good thoughts and clear views.""Where does he get these?""Out of himself.""And how does he learn to sharpen them, and to round them off?""By comparing them.""With what?""With the thoughts of great men.""And do
- 88 The Wine-count was most cordial in his manner; there was a remarkable elasticity in the movements of the slender, white-haired old man. He went from guest to guest, with an appropriate friendly word for each, and on all sides received double congratulatio
- 89 "Does it seem to you as it does to me, when you see your nearest friend in a great a.s.sembly, as if you met in a strange land, or as if struggling in a river, in which you are drowning?""Ah! Bravo!" many voices cried suddenly. A flight of rockets was
- 90 "Forgive me! forgive!" was echoed and re-echoed within her. At first it was directed to Clodwig, and now to Eric."Forgive! forgive my pride! But thou canst not know how proud I have been: and I sacrificed to thee more than a thousand others, more than
- 91 Claus seemed to have pined away considerably, and when the dwarf wanted to whisper something to him, as he sat there at a little distance from his fellow defendants, he turned away displeased. He looked up to the s.p.a.ce occupied by the spectators, and s
- 92 The same sun that shone at Wolfsgarten, where Bella was maintaining a severe internal struggle, and that shone through the lowered green shades in the court-room upon the bench of the accused, glimmered also through the closed Venetian blinds in the quiet
- 93 "Because he will be hanged."Claus did not like to have them talk of bad people.Sevenpiper was a good representative of "blessed be nothing." He had sent a child to his house, and just as some bottles of wine arrived which Fraulein Milch had sent, ther
- 94 He understood how to represent in a very plausible way, that the Professorin--to whom the Cabinetsrathin herself looked up, because she had been the favorite and most influential lady of the Court, even the friend and confidante of the Princess-dowager--t
- 95 When she thanked him for having been the means of obtaining such a position for Eric, he declined receiving any thanks for what he had done, as it was only a trifling amount toward the payment of his debt to the late Professor, to whom he owed all the cul
- 96 Sonnenkamp expressed himself as very much obliged for the compliment, but he smiled inwardly, thinking that he saw through the fine courtly breeding; that this lady, before she came there, had read up in his favorite pursuit, in order to render herself ag
- 97 The ladies withdrew to dress for dinner. Frau Dournay had let down her long gray hair, and sat some time speechless in her dressing-room, with her hands folded in her lap. It seemed to her as if her brain had received a heavy blow from what she had become
- 98 "I?" the priest asked."And I?" asked the Professorin."Yes, you. Our century has entered upon a wholly new investigation of the laws of the world; and things, circ.u.mstances, sentiments, which one would not believe could ever be caught, are now bagge
- 99 She knew not what she desired here, but she was happy, or rather soothed, when she saw them sitting so confidentially together. Yes, she thought, every one who gives an ear to him, and returns a stimulating reply occasionally, is as much to him as I.She r
- 100 "My heart is full of happiness and joy; it is a real blessedness to see a woman who is sixty years old, and who has never had a thought that she needed to repent of."Bella looked up quickly. "What does this mean? Has he any idea of what has transpired?