Robert
A Clerical Novel by Adolf Fuchs
by
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The wanderers had now arrived at the summit where they had formerly seen both of their girls walking in the garden. They halted there. The sun had just risen, and the spire of N—dorf’s church “was already warming itself in it.” Village, parish, and garden close by were still lying in the magical half darkness at their feet.
Silently and with steadfast expressions the young men looked down.
“Shouldn’t she appear?” Robert broke the silence. “She knows of course that we planned to leave A—städt before sunrise. Oh, if it hadn’t been for Nero, I surely could have awakened her at her window from her morning dreams.”
“But won’t the dog have done it now instead of you?” Wilhelm remarked.
“You are right,” Robert answered, “but he will have awakened the stepfather no less.”
They again looked silently down into the garden and were already on the point of continuing with their walking sticks when two female figures showed themselves in the vicinity of the parsonage. They were undeniably mother and daughter who wanted to discuss in the garden, undisturbed and without being overheard, the events of the past night.
“Shall we go down there?” Robert asked.
“That’s impossible!” Wilhelm replied. “Have you forgotten your friend Nero?”
After a while Robert responded, “Shouldn’t our voices get through to them down there?”
After reflecting on it briefly, he began Uhland’s “Farewell, farewell, my love!” The stillness of the morning, the resonance of the forest, and Robert’s powerful voice caused his singing to be carried down to the garden. Already the women were slowing down their pace at the phrase “Must yet depart today!” and looking up, listening. Then Marie, catching sight of the two young men as they stood there on the summit in the bright sunlight, seized her kerchief, which had just been moistened by her tears, and waved it at them. Robert answered in the same fashion and continued to sing. But at the words “No harvest, no harvest for me! I may not expect it!” his voice faltered, and he closed in such soft, quavering tones that only Wilhelm could hear them.
Smiling with eyes moist, the lovers stood opposite one another for a long time. For a moment it seemed as if Marie wanted to leave the garden and was being held back by her mother. Then Robert pointed at the morning sun which just then was also brightly lighting up the garden. Marie understood him and repeated the sign. And when he thereupon pointed up at the clear blue of the morning sky with raised hand, how could she then not understand him also? Love requires no words.
Soon they were standing across from each other with looks of radiant joy. The hope that eternal love would also let the sun of happiness rise for them some day had filled their hearts with sweet consolation.
It is impossible to say how long they would have maintained their position, for who would have liked to give up first? Nevertheless this was decided only too soon when a male form wrapped in a dressing gown walked into the garden, approached the women, and led them back into the house.
Then the young men also set off on their way.
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About the Book
In the novel’s Preface, the Author states:
“In a few short words, the content of the book is this: A boy dedicates himself to the clerical profession with the fire of childlike enthusiasm, the youth goes astray in his profession, and the man, ‘because not all flowering dreams ripened,’ has the notion of giving it up and ‘fleeing to the desert.’ Yet Heaven has decided otherwise. With resignation he comes back to himself and begins again to believe in his calling.
Besides this, everything which is presented in the book belongs partly to the characteristics of the hero appearing in it, partly to the characteristics of our time chiefly with regard to religious, ecclesiastical, and especially clerical matters.”
About the Author
Carl Adolf Friedrich Fuchs, 1805-1885, the author of Robert, was a teacher and a third-generation Lutheran minister in
Kenneth W. Fuchs, a great-great-grandson of the author and translator of the novel, is a retired high school English and German teacher. He enjoys collecting old photographs and researching for information about Adolf Fuchs, his ancestors and descendants.