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karin05's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
amberfinnegan's review against another edition
5.0
Meine Mutter hat’s gewollt,
Den andern ich nehmen sollt’:
Was ich zuvor besessen,
Mein Herz sollt’ es vergessen;
Das hat es nicht gewollt.
Meine Mutter klag’ ich an,
Sie hat nicht wohl getan;
Was sonst in Ehren stünde,
Nun ist es worden Sünde.
Was fang’ ich an!
Für all’ mein’ Stolz und Freud’
Gewonnen hab’ ich Leid.
Ach, wär’ das nicht geschehen,
Ach, könnt’ ich betteln gehen
Über die braune Heid’!
This story definitely pulled on my emotional strings. While the story itself is brief, the tale within felt like an eternity.
kathischm's review against another edition
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
lici2107's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
caterpillarnotebooks's review against another edition
4.0
Beautiful and sentimental... I do realize this might be not the most subtle work, but I read this in German too and honestly, I find so much merit in that
mary_juleyre's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
jgwc54e5's review against another edition
4.0
A bittersweet tale of an old man reminiscing about his long lost childhood love. Reinhard is a collector of folktales and songs which adds to the lovely melancholic tone.
reannexy's review against another edition
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
morbid_swither's review against another edition
4.0
Reread; this was an assignment in German Literature coursework at Hardin-Simmons University. A brief and quiet book written smack-dab in the middle of the 19th Century by an author beloved in his native Germany. “Immensee” (“The Lake of the Bees”) is noteworthy to me for the sustainment of a consistent elegiac narrative voice, the pleasure of its evocations of pastorality and landscape, and the richness of its symbolism. Some note the subtlety of its latent political messages, which mostly were lost on me. As a fine example of literary realism, and one marked unusually by a poetic sentimentality, this book is worth reading. My fondness for it, and ultimately what warranted a second read, was the sublimity with which the narrator, Reinhardt, recalls the bygone days of his youth and his dissolved early romance with the darling Elisabeth. The novella’s effectiveness in reflecting on memory and loss, and certainly how it achieves to offer so much more than what would met the eye, made this a great choice to revisit. Though not nearly as angsty as a piece of Sturm und Drang, the Romantic themes are sublimated in a neatly constructed work that seems to have made an impression on the bourgeois German writers of the 20th Century, as well as—though to a lesser extent—the masterful Peter Handke.