The Editorials of Fritz Kocher
by Robert Walser, translated from German by Jean Launay,
Zoé Editions, 192 p., €11
The Handyman
by Robert Walser, translated from German by Walter Weideli,
Zoé, 384 p., €12
The Tear Drinker,
by Robert Walser, translated from German by Marion Graf,
Zoé, 176 p., €19
Thanks to Zoé publishing, which undertakes the regular publication of Robert Walser’s work, we can read his short texts, faithful to their time, the first half of the last century. Born in 1878 in Switzerland, in Bienne, in a middle-class family, Robert Walser was 16 years old when his mother died. In 1892, although a brilliant student, he gave up his studies. In 1895, he left the family home, took jobs as a servant, then left for Germany, where, while being passionate about theater, he wrote poetry. And soon sketched his era in broad strokes.
In 1904 he published The Editorials of Fritz Kocher. In short texts, he gives voice to Fritz, a fifth-grade student in the first pages, who expresses his childhood desires: to rush towards the world, to grasp its beauty, to be loved, to hear the call of the forest. And then the tone changes: Fritz as an adolescent becomes a clerk, this figure who, he says, has not interested writers much: ” Clerks are rich, brilliant, original, magnificent natures… Few creatures under the sun have such pure hearts.”
Confusion of feelings
In The Handyman (1908)Joseph Marti’s character has internalized the laws of modern society. Hired by Charles Tobler, an engineer who, tyrannical and spendthrift, leads his company to bankruptcy, the hero accepts servitude for reasons that, even for him, remain an enigma: ” Deep down in his heart, he loved this man.” And he tries to analyze this ” confusion of feelings”, this need for connection and reference points, his feeling of abandonment: “ He had been so old in his youth!”
The years spent in Germany were creative years for Robert Walser. Why did he return to Switzerland in 1913? After the suicide of his brother Hermann, he fell into a severe depression, from which he never really recovered. He was finally hospitalized in Waldau in 1929, then in Herisau, from 1933 until his death. In the early years, he wrote “feuilletons”, which he called “monograms” and which he sends to Zurich, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, etc. He captures everyday life, evokes a book, tells a dream, silhouettes glide by. Many of these texts have remained unpublished.
In The Tear Drinker are collected 32 short prose pieces that Walser had not sent, anecdotes, fragments of short stories, meditations on his profession as a writer, memories of youth. Is it he who confesses his faith in the text Some words about Jesus: “He glided like a light into the provinces of life, almost or even completely invisible” ? Little by little, he stopped writing, devoted himself to humble domestic tasks, resembled his characters, became mute. His friend Carl Seelig had, however, during long walks, collected his confidences about Kleist, Hölderlin, about his world which, he said, “the Nazis had destroyed.” Robert Walser was found dead in the snow near the hospital on Christmas Day 1956. He was 78 years old.
