Streszczenie książki Kurtizana Jamajka

The story in 8 parts

1. Key idea 1 · free to read

   A stranger in a black hat becomes a lover

   On an early summer day the narrator sees a woman walk down a city street, upright, shaded by a large black hat. He takes her for a creature from a fairy tale and follows her until she steps into a carriage and drives away.

   When he sees her again, a friend gives her name. She is Jamaica, a courtesan, called that for the brown tint of her skin. She has had a prince, then an artist, and now a Swedish count. The narrator asks to be introduced anyway, and they agree to meet at the circus. He waits with roses in his hand, grows angry, and goes in alone. Jamaica sits in a box beside a blond man and acts as if she does not know him.

   Still she comes to his rooms for tea and sinks into his armchairs as if they were hers. One afternoon she cries out that she loves him, but she will not give up the count. When the Swede goes home for a month, she asks the narrator to join her at a Baltic resort, and he agrees at once. By the sea they ride at dawn and build a sandcastle with colored pennants. Then he sees her face glow as she talks with an Englishman, and her warmth toward him cools. His love only grows, and a foolish idea takes hold of him: he must marry her so she cannot leave.

   Desire begins as a picture in the mind, and jealousy begins when the picture moves.

2. 2

   A painter sees a girl only as a picture

   Konrad Tedrahn, a professional artist, tells this story himself and admits he plays a sad role in it.

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3. 3

   A sick student falls for a photograph

   Gregor is a medical student, slender and handsome, with a lung disease scarcely visible except on bad days.

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4. 4

   Fog makes a doctor lose his way

   This tale is told inside a frame.

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5. 5

   A carefree girl gives everything away

   The narrator first sees Ebeth on a bright autumn day at an amusement park.

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6. 6

   Two proud young people spar at a wedding

   Fridolin is young, tall, fair, and calm.

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7. 7

   Seeing a person is harder than admiring a picture

   Several of these tales turn on a man who looks at a woman as something to admire, own, or put on canvas.

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8. 8

   Weather, color, and light carry the feeling

   Bethge tells these tales in different voices.

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