Novel
Jakob der Letzte
Not translated into English
Peter Rosegger · 1888
Opening lines
Das war am heiligen Pfingstsonntag nach der Mahlzeit.
It was on holy Whit Sunday, after the meal.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from projekt-gutenberg.org
Synopsis
In Altenmoos, a hamlet in Upper Styria, the farms are sold off one by one: a large landowner buys them up to enlarge his hunting ground, and the peasants go down to work in the factory. Jakob, for his part, refuses to give up the land he holds from his forefathers, despite the financial pressure the landowner puts on him. Bad harvests and tax debts pile up, the neighbours leave, and his own family falls apart.
Context
In the spring of 1886, its author returned to the valley where he was born and found only eight farms out of twenty-five; a forester told him that Styria is a country of game and not of peasants, and he wrote the book in the summer and autumn that followed. The pre-original publication appeared from January 1887 in the monthly review he edited, the volume edition the following year, considerably expanded. The book responds to the rural exodus of industrial Styria and proposes no remedy.
Who it is for
A dark novel under the guise of a peasant tale. Anyone who comes looking for the author of the childhood memories will be surprised: here nothing is mended.
Prizes and reception
The darkest of its author's novels, and a quick bestseller from its appearance in book form.
Sources for this page 9
The pages consulted to check this page.