66. Correction

Novel by Emma Böhmer

Dresden and Leipzig, Verlag von Carl Reißner, 1901

The suffering of the young girl, who, contrary to all healthy nature, has to develop within a “correct” family life, is portrayed by Gabriele Reuter in her well-known novel “Aus guter Familie” with consummate psychological skill. The reader of this novel must be stirred to a lively sense of the depth of this problem. But one also senses that the modern question of fate raised here can be posed in more than one way. In her recently published novel “Inkorrekt”, Emma Böhmer has posed this question in a way that is of the greatest interest to observers of modern social conditions. We get to know the author as a serious artist and a keen observer. She describes with a certain lyrical warmth that reveals in every sentence the degree to which she embraces the figures of her imagination. There is a great deal of compositional talent to be recognized in the way Emma Böhmer contrasts the characters with each other. Two sisters develop from a “good family”. One becomes what is expected according to the family's philosophy of life. She meets people as the customs of her class demand; she strives to please men, but only in the correct mask of well-behaved reserve; she only presents herself to people as the daughter of a “well-educated” family, because she only reads scandalous novels in secret and never forgets to put them away safely when she interrupts her reading. She marries as noble daughters marry, so that nothing of the truth of inner life needs to be said in the hypocritical relationship between bride and bridegroom. Her marriage must be one that has two sides, a barren and empty one at home and a correct one towards society. The other sister, the main character of the novel, asserts the inner truth of her being, no matter how often she is forced to hide it within the circle of her proper family. She seeks ways to develop her artistic impulses. She has to do everything in this direction behind her parents' backs, because they can only see all this as a distortion of the true character of a girl. She finds a man who understands her soul's inclinations. If circumstances were favorable, this man would secure a position for himself and then, although he could never find the full sympathy of his parents as a writer, he would at least find “mercy” from them. And even if this were not the case, the two people would force themselves to live a life that meets their needs. But since an accident causes the man's sudden death, the situation takes a turn that, while it illuminates the unnatural environment in which the girl has developed, forces her personality, which is struggling for independence, to achieve complete liberation. She is found with the just-deceased lover. This means a scandal for all her “proper” relatives. She leaves her house and family and sets out on a “lonesome journey” in search of a life in freedom. As in the course of the preceding events, the peculiarities of the characters of the individual members of the “good family” become particularly apparent at the end, when what can only be considered a “scandal” occurs in their eyes. The personalities of the parents, as well as those of the two sisters, form contrasting figures, subtly differentiated by the way in which the character of each is distorted by a stereotyped way of life. The father is particularly interesting, in whose mind the bureaucrat's way of thinking struggles with a good heart in such a way that the reader also experiences a fierce battle of emotions between sympathy for a basically mild and noble person and aversion to a personality that is completely , but inwardly completely unfree personality.

I don't think anyone will put the novel down without the conviction that the author has given them the opportunity to delve into a few human souls in a stimulating way, which are truly worth the interest. The presentation is characterized by artistic brevity. Nothing is said that is not required by the nature of the task at hand. All of these are characteristics that can be considered good omens for the author's future career.