Seldwyla Folks Explained

Seldwyla Folks, also published as The People of Seldwyla (German: Die Leute von Seldwyla), is a sequence of novellas by the Swiss writer Gottfried Keller. The ten stories are set around the fictional small town of Seldwyla in Switzerland. Each story is about an obsession or fixation that leads to excess, bigotry or self-indulgence.^[1]

The first five stories were written from 1853 to 1855 and published together in 1856. The second half was written from 1860 to 1875. The finished sequence was published together from 1873 to 1875.^[2]

Stories

1. "" (German: Pankraz, der Schmoller)
2. "" (German: Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe|link=no)
3. "" (German: Frau Regel Amrain und ihr Jüngster|link=no)
4. "" (German: Die drei gerechten Kammmacher|link=no)
5. "" (German: Spiegel, das Kätzchen|link=no)
6. "Clothes Make the Man" (German: Kleider machen Leute|link=no)
7. "" (German: Der Schmied seines Glückes|link=no)
8. "" (German: Die mißbrauchten Liebesbriefe|link=no)
9. ""
10. "" (German: Das verlorne Lachen|link=no)

Selected adaptations

• A Village Romeo and Juliet, 1907 opera composed by Frederick Delius
• Kleider machen Leute, 1910 opera composed by Alexander von Zemlinsky
• Clothes Make the Man, 1921 Austrian-German film
• Kleider machen Leute, 1934 opera composed by Joseph Suder
• Clothes Make the Man, 1940 German film
• Spiegel the Cat, 1952 Australian radio play

Notes and References

1. Web site: Görner . Rüdiger . The People of Seldwyla: Die Leute Von Seldwyla . New Books in German . 14 December 2023 .
2. Book: Swales, Erika . 1994 . The poetics of scepticism: Gottfried Keller and Die Leute von Seldwyla . Berg monographs in German literature . Oxford . Berg Publishers . 0-85496-903-9 .