Headless Angel by Vicki Baum was first published in 1949 and I believe it is sometimes titled Clarinda and it has an intriguing beginning. The prologue starts:
Now that September is blue and hazy upon the land, I like to walk up to my grave in the early afternoon and remain there until in the slanting sun the shadow of my tombstone grows long and lean and begins licking at the hem of my skirt.
It’s Clarinda who is speaking and she is a young married woman living in Weimar where the writer Goethe is a frequent visitor to her house, she has known him since she was a child and he’s a great friend. Clarinda’s husband Albert is a bore as well as a philanderer and when an astonishingly handsome young Spanish man visits the neighbourhood she is bowled over by him and they end up running off together. Too late she discovers that just about everything her beloved Felipe tells her is a lie, he’s a dreamer and a gambler, but she’s still hooked on him.
Because of the political situation in Spain Felipe isn’t able to go back there so it’s to Mexico that they go to live. He’s well known there and pins his hopes on being able to make money out of a mine he owns. It’s the boom and bust existence of a gambler and Clarinda copes with the changes in her life – whether she’s living the life of a princess or a pauper.
The setting is the 1800s around the time of the Mexican wars for their independence from Spain and I was impressed that Vicki Baum, an Austrian Jew had been able to write a book around an era in history that must have been completely alien to her, she moved to the US in the 1930s when one of her books was made into a film. It was a very lucky move for her as her books were banned in Nazi Germany. She must have been drawn to that era in history when men were men – and she could dress her hero in leather finery and a cloak, I couldn’t help thinking of Dirk Bogarde while I was reading this book. He would have been perfect to play the part of Felipe. Think Zorro and you get a picture of how Felipe liked to look, minus the mask.
I really like her writing, I suppose this book could be described as a romance, but it’s more than that and Clarinda is such a good strong character. It’s a shame that Headless Angel doesn’t seem to have been reprinted as I think it must be quite difficult to get hold of a copy, I was just lucky to pick it up in a second-hand bookshop.
Baum’s earlier books were definitely written in German and I would love to know if she eventually switched to writing in English as this book doesn’t mention a translator.
This is fascinating as I am reading Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther at the moment. In that book as you may well know, Werther (Goethe) meets and becomes obsessed with a young woman – Charlotte – who is betrothed to Albert. Charlotte and Albert appear to welcome Werther’s friendship and are tolerant of and sympathetic to his hopeless love for Charlotte. Charlotte (Clarinda?) is portrayed as the ideal of young womanhood. Albert comes across as calm, reserved, sensible and pleasant – not a huge leap to boring I suppose, although thus far in the book he certainly isn’t a philanderer
It does seem that Vicki Baum has taken the basics of characters and setting from Goethe’s novella: using Goethe himself as well as character names and locations as a springboard for her own story. I wonder why she chose to do that, when the book she eventually produced is so far from Goethe’s original? (I’m only halfway through – perhaps there will be more similarities further on.)
Sandra,
That IS fascinating. I knew very little about Goethe and haven’t read anything by him, but from what you say it does look like Baum has used his work and life in Headless Angel. What a coincidence that you are reading about Goethe now and have all this information. Thanks, I’ll get around to reading him some time.
I’ll write a review of it eventually, Katrina – and will let you know if any more similarities emerge. I love how much I’m discovering and learning through reading the reviews of others such as yourself. The only drawback being that my tbr list now requires several lifetimes if it’s ever to be conquered!
Sandra,
In your own time Sandra – I’ll look forward to it. I know exactly what you mean, blogging has added so many ‘must read’ books to my list and bookshelves.
I first read “Danger From Deer” (written 1951) when I was in my teens and have always enjoyed the breadth of characters and settings of time and place that Vicki Baum employed therein. As always, will keep an eye out for more of her books.
Valerie,
I haven’t read that one. Have you read The Weeping Wood by any chance? I bought it recently but having had a look at it it seems very different from her other books. Mind you I think she might have enjoyed writing books that were very different from each other.
No, I have not read The Weeping Wood, sorry 🙂
Hello,
you’re post is the first one, where I found information about this mysterious book. I picked it up from a “phone-book-box” (former phone boxes which are out of order and transformed into public book shelves) by coincidence. The first line hooked me and I took the book though I haven’t read the other book by Baum I already own. In Germany this book isn’t reprinted too … It’s hard to say wether it was originally published in German or English, because my German edition doesn’t mention a translator too. You’re right, it is published as Clarinda in German.
Greetings and thanks for your post. 🙂
Alex,
I’ve read three books by Vicki Baum and really enjoyed them all, I hope the other one you have is Berlin Hotel, I think that is my favourite. I don’t suppose we’ll ever know if Baum wrote both the English and German versions of the book, but I suspect that she did. We also have phone box ‘libraries’ in some places, that book was a lucky find for you. Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
Katrina