Background
Conrad Meyer was born on October 11, 1825, in Zürich, Switzerland.
(A tale of forbidden love in thirteenth-century Italy, The...)
A tale of forbidden love in thirteenth-century Italy, The Monk's Wedding is full of colorful personages, violent emotions and violent deeds. Swiss author Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825 - 1898) was a master of the historical novella. The Monk's Wedding, written in 1884, is an exotic and fascinating tale told with an intriguing and skillful use of the frame narration technique. Set in medieval Italy, the story follows a train of events resulting in a highly ironical outcome. Meyer recreates medieval Italy not only in its physical environment, but also in the mores and attitudes of the time. Those who enjoy a refined and elegant tale will enjoy this novella.
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Conrad Meyer was born on October 11, 1825, in Zürich, Switzerland.
Having finished the gymnasium, Meyer began to study law at the university, but suffered from depression, which compelled him to enter a mental home for a time.
A long stay in French Switzerland, largely in Lausanne, gave him a thorough knowledge of French literature and culture; he also took up history, studying abroad in Paris and Italy. Rome, and especially the work of Michelangelo, was one of the decisive experiences in his life; Michelangelo’s monumental style became an ideal that he attempted to realize in his own poetry. He passed the rest of his life in Zürich or nearby, where, with no settled profession and of independent means, he was able to devote himself to his writing. From 1877 he had a country house at Kilchberg, near Zürich. In 1892 depression once again forced him into a mental home for a year, and afterward he did no more creative work.
Meyer began to write rather late, and his total output was relatively slender. After two unimportant collections of poetry (Zwanzig Balladen, 1864; Romanzen und Bilder, 1870), he achieved his first success with a work of permanent importance, the powerful poem Huttens letzte Tage (1871). The narrative poem Engelberg (1872) was followed by his 11 Novellen, or prose narratives, among which are Das Amulett (1873), Der Heilige (1880; The Saint), Das Leiden eines Knaben (1883), Die Hochzeit des Mönchs (1884; The Monk’s Wedding), Die Versuchung des Pescara (1887), and Angela Borgia (1891). His poetry was first collected in Gedichte (1882; "Poems").
In 1880, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich.
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer died on November 28, 1898.
(A tale of forbidden love in thirteenth-century Italy, The...)
Quotations:
"The harder it has been for a son of earth to win freedom,
The more mightily does he stir his fellow man. "
