IV

IV

Chapter IV gives us a description of the Buchel farm and its inhabitants, especially L.’s mother Elsbeth. We are further introduced to a number of other suspicious characters, such as the hunchbacked stableboy Thomas, the “floppy-bosomed” milkmaid Hanne, and the smiling dog Suso, all of whom will have counterparts at L.’s later abode in Pfeiffering. We also learn about L.’s first encounters with music and with “imitative polyphony” in the form of the rounds that Hanne teaches the Buchel children.

Time of composition: June 25–July 7, 1943. Time of narration: Summer 1943. Narrated time: n/a

24/36	swelled to excess as it is	Another reminder that Z. is having tangible trouble controlling the shape of his narrative—either out of incompetence or because of dark forces conspiring against him.
24/37	handsome old German head	Elsbeth L.’s features were inspired by Albrecht Dürer’s Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman (Fig. 2).
24/37	an Italian	The German term welsch refers to speakers of any romance language. The term thus also implies an association with France, a country that is repeatedly associated with cosmopolitanism in DF.
26/39	that very off-putting imperial	A Knebelbart combines a twirled mustache and goatee with clean-shaven cheeks.
26/39	blue-gray-green irises	Z. will repeatedly allude to the color of L.’s eyes over the course of the novel.
26/39	afflicted with a humpback	A possible reference to the devil, as well as to The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) by Victor Hugo (1802–1885), which features an important character named Esmeralda.
26/40	wanton last name	“Luder” means “hussy” in German.
28/42	antithesis […] artist and bourgeois	An important aspect also of TM’s aesthetics.
28/43	hated and scorned the word	An early example of L.’s persistent anti-Romanticism and mistrust of the concept of genius.
29/42	Pfeiffering near Waldshut	Fictive toponym modeled on the village of Polling in Upper Bavaria, about 30 miles southwest of Munich. The equally fictive Waldshut is modeled on the nearby town of Weilheim.
31/47	here was a temporal intertwining	Hanne’s early music lessons introduce L. to the principles of polyphony and again illustrate the theme of mythic repetition.