Story summary
愛のあらすじ
- 読了8分
- 8 parts
- 音声は近日公開
A prince kills a dog, buys a bride and ruins a baron, guided by a dark angel who speaks of love.
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愛の概要
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- 約1 h 5 min50 min fast, 1 h 20 min slow
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- 15,700語
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愛 in short
Love tells one story in a handful of fierce scenes. Two lovers find each other in the dark, and the woman says that they have not yet suffered. In the morning the man begins to act on that sentence.
What 愛 is about
What would you do if the strongest proof of love you could imagine were to destroy the one you love? That question drives Love, a short, fierce novel set in Vienna by the Austrian writer Hans Kaltneker, who died in 1919.
Prince Secundus and the Baroness Kathrin Nhilius have just found each other in a bedroom at night. She says that dying now would be too small for them, since they have not yet suffered through each other. By morning Secundus is killing a dog and buying a wife. A dark visitor with the face of Dante explains his deeds with the help of a medieval mystic.
対象読者. You will love this book if you enjoy intense, poetic fiction, tales of obsession and moral extremes, the mystic Meister Eckhart, or the glittering, corrupt Vienna of balls, banks and bargains.
The story in 8 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A night of vows ends with a warning
The story begins in the dark, with two lovers who cannot find words big enough for what they feel. Each says I love you, once. The narrator adds that words are cloaks around naked thought.
Kathrin tells Secundus how she waited for him through years of marriage. At night she would rise from her warm bed and walk six barefoot steps across the cold floor to the door. It was a small sacrifice, offered to God and to him. She also tells him of her honeymoon in Cairo, where she stroked a leprous beggar in the dark of an archway. Secundus answers with jealousy, and she admits she loves her dog. He says he will have to kill him.
Then, in the middle of their bliss, he asks whether they should die right now. Kathrin refuses. Wouldn't that be too small for them, she asks, since they have never suffered through each other?
The morning is cold. In the gray garden the black dog comes shivering to him and rubs its head against his knee. He pours a few drops from a small bottle onto a handkerchief and holds it to the animal's muzzle. The dog dies without pain.
The happiest hour of the book is also the one that sets the whole disaster in motion.
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He buys a bride on three cold conditions
From the garden Secundus goes straight to an old apartment crammed with velvet, dust and knickknacks.
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A dark visitor explains the sacrifice of love
Two nights later Secundus sits in the Manhattan Bar, drinking hard and avoiding sleep.
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He ruins her name and kills her husband with words
The wedding is a small civil ceremony.
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A market crash, a stolen lace and a bought brothel
Secundus visits his estate manager Fanto and asks about Kathrin's money.
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Love is shown as the sacrifice of love itself
The first theme is the one the Sad One names.
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Vienna is shown as a world of bargains
The second theme is society.
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The tale moves between satire, vision and ritual
The way the book is told matters as much as what happens.
Read all 8 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Prince Secundus A rich Viennese prince who loves Kathrin so fiercely that he sets out to destroy her and himself in the name of love.
- Kathrin Nhilius A beautiful baroness, married to another man, who believes that love must be tested by suffering through each other.
- The Sad One A fallen angel with the face of Dante who visits Secundus at night and teaches him the last stage of love.
- Sabine A proud young woman in mourning who accepts a loveless marriage with Secundus for rank and ten million crowns.
- Baron Nhilius Kathrin's gentle, heavy husband, a rich speculator with a weak heart who tries to settle matters humanely.
- Fanto Secundus's shrewd, loyal manager who plans his master's stock-market schemes and warns him of their cost.
- Adèle Osterer The elegant owner of Vienna's finest brothel, who speaks of her trade as a public service and takes Secundus's money.
How it ends (spoiler)
At Madame Adèle's dinner the men fall on Kathrin like beasts. Secundus sees the ceiling open to the stars and shoots one attacker, wounds others and locks the door. He lifts Kathrin onto a divan and kneels. She tells him she knew all along that his cruelty was love, and that she suffered with him. The Sad One smiles in the dark, and the two lovers say I love you again.
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『愛』についての質問
What is Love by Hans Kaltneker about?
It follows Prince Secundus, who loves the married Baroness Kathrin Nhilius and sets out to ruin her, her husband and himself. A dark angel tells him that love in its last stage must sacrifice itself and be hated.
Who is the Sad One in Love?
He is a fallen angel with the face of Dante who visits Secundus at night. He calls Secundus his brother, teaches him a mystic doctrine of love, and urges him to go all the way to the end.
What does the quote from Meister Eckhart mean?
Eckhart describes three stages in which love separates a person first from things, then from spiritual comfort, then even from the hope of eternal life. The book uses this idea to explain Secundus's actions.
When was Love written and is it a true story?
It is a work of fiction by the Austrian writer Hans Kaltneker, who died in 1919. Its setting is Vienna before the First World War, with its salons, banks and courts, but the characters and plot are invented.
Is Love worth reading?
It suits readers who enjoy short, vivid fiction that blends satire with visions of heaven and hell. It packs stock-market schemes, a trial, a brothel and a prayer into a compact, fast-moving story.
この版を引用します
Kaltneker, Hans. Love. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/love.
Kaltneker, H. (2026). Love. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love
Kaltneker, Hans. Love. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love.
@book{kaltneker2026love,
author = {Kaltneker, Hans},
title = {Love},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love}
}
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愛の要約を最後まで無料で読めます
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