HEINRICH VON KLEIST - THE MARQUISE OF O AND OTHER STORIES

Image: still from the film The Marquise of O by Eric Rohmer.

A reread. And I remembered why I liked Kleist the first time I read him: the pacing. He throttles through a tale without fluffing the pillows first — the pillows being niceties like character introduction, setting, swaying trees. There’s something seasonally appealing about the spareness of Kleist’s aesthetic. It is autumn. The stories I read should be stripped/wind-scoured/leafless… Read, October 2019.