Résumé
Résumé de L’Expérience de Schwedenklee
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who enjoy a gentle comic novel with a touch of ghost story, a close study of one man's vanity and tenderness, and old Berlin cafés, cards and billiards, with the Baltic coast for contrast.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Schwedenklee's Experience is a novel by Bernhard Kellermann, who died in 1951. It follows Philipp Schwedenklee, a wealthy Berlin architect of forty-five who has never had to struggle for anything. His money came from his father, a bricklayer turned builder. His title came from a head waiter. His comfort comes from a cook, a good appetite and a regular table at a café. The book gives you a comic, warm and sometimes painful portrait of a man who believes that luck follows him like a shadow.
The story opens on a lucky man and his comfortable life, and then a letter arrives. A stranger writes to say that a woman both men loved has died, and Schwedenklee cannot place her at all. From this small unease the novel opens into memories of Paris, a strange friendship, a deathbed in a poor district of Berlin, and a summer by the Baltic sea. You will meet a man who is funny, vain and kind by turns. Let us begin with the life that the letters disturb.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A lucky man in a comfortable worldFree
- 2A black-edged letter breaks the routine
- 3Ellen in Paris and Blank at the door
- 4A rival, a fever and a summons
- 5Ellen comes home and Siebenbirken blooms
- 6What the story is about and how it is told
Point clé 1 sur 6
A lucky man in a comfortable world
The novel opens by asking why some people seem pursued by luck. The answer it gives is Philipp Schwedenklee, an architect who owns a fine house in the old West End of Berlin, building plots on the Kurfürstendamm and an estate in Mecklenburg. His fortune came from his father, who began as a mason at fifteen and ended as a rich contractor. The son has his father's gift for houses and his mother's iron stomach.
Schwedenklee's career starts well. He wins a competition for a small museum, designs a villa for his father, and returns from Italy and Paris elegant and expert at billiards. A grand building he makes on the Kurfürstendamm nearly ruins him, but the new cinema trade saves him by turning it into a movie theater. Then he withdraws to his ground floor apartment to write a book on rebuilding Berlin around its rivers. The book is never finished.
The second chapter shows his day. He wakes late, eats a huge breakfast, reads three newspapers, and walks out to observe life in a fur collar. He naps, plays the violin less and less, and spends every evening at his café on Potsdamer Strasse. The head waiter has given him the title Chief Building Surveyor, which he treasures as if a ministry had granted it.
The narrator gently notes small cracks. His eyes seem smaller, his eyesight is failing, and his belly will not fit his tailor's work. He once dreamed of being a violinist and a builder of railway stations. He stays a bachelor, proud of a freedom he defends against marriage, and the book lets us see how much that freedom has cost.
The tone is teasing but fond. Kellermann lets Schwedenklee praise himself while the facts quietly say otherwise.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about L’Expérience de Schwedenklee
What is Schwedenklee's Experience about?
It follows Philipp Schwedenklee, a rich and comfortable Berlin architect whose routine is disturbed by letters from a stranger about a woman he loved long ago. The story moves from Berlin cafés to a country estate by the Baltic Sea.
Who is Ellen in Schwedenklee's Experience?
There are two. Ellen Froehlich was a young woman Schwedenklee knew in Paris and later died as Blank's wife. Ellen Blank is their daughter.
Who is Edgar Blank in the novel?
Blank is a former court opera singer who once knew Schwedenklee only in passing. He writes the letters, brings a faded photograph, and becomes a strange, dramatic friend whose illness and poverty move the story forward.
What is Siebenbirken in the book?
Siebenbirken is Schwedenklee's country estate on the Baltic coast near Warnemünde. He names it after the seven birch trees in front of the house, and there the story becomes warmer, with animals, music, bicycles and building plans.
Is Schwedenklee's Experience easy to read?
It is told in a lively, ironic voice with short chapters, vivid scenes and plenty of comedy. The characters are clearly drawn, so a reader can follow the story from café to country house with pleasure.