Eduard Graf von Keyserling (May 14, 1855 – September 28, 1918) was a Baltic German

Baltic German

The Baltic Germans were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which today form the countries of Estonia and Latvia. The Baltic German population never made up more than 10% of the total. They formed the social, commercial, political and cultural élite in...

 fiction writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and dramatist and an exponent of literary Impressionism

Impressionism

Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

.

Biography

Keyserling was born at Schloss Tels-Paddern near Aizpute

Aizpute

Aizpute is a town in western Latvia's Aizpute municipality in the valley of Tebra River, northeast of Liepāja.-History:It was founded as the castle of Hasenpoth of a German Crusaders order in 1248 and was granted the Magdeburg rights in 1378....

, Courland Governorate

Courland Governorate

Courland Governorate, also known as the Province of Courland, Governorate of Kurland , and Government of Courland , was one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, that is now part of the Republic of Latvia....

, within the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, now Kalvene parish

Kalvene parish

Kalvene parish is an administrative unit of the Aizpute municipality, Latvia. The parish has a population of 803 and covers an area of 118.9 km2.- Villages of Kalvene parish :* Kalvene * Kalvenes stacija* Krusāta* Pērbone...

, Liepaja District

Liepaja District

Liepāja District was an administrative division of Latvia, located in the Courland region, in the country's west.Districts were eliminated during the administrative-territorial reform in 2009....

 in Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

. He belonged to an ancient family of Baltic German

Baltic German

The Baltic Germans were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which today form the countries of Estonia and Latvia. The Baltic German population never made up more than 10% of the total. They formed the social, commercial, political and cultural élite in...

 nobility and was a cousin of the philosopher Hermann Keyserling. He died in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

.

Keyserling's early novels Fräulein Rosa Herz. Eine Kleinstadtliebe (1887) and Die dritte Stiege (1892) were influenced by Naturalism

Naturalism (literature)

Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...

. His essays on general and cultural questions, like his theater plays, are forgotten. His narrative, novellas and novels, after 1902, place Keyserling at the forefront of German literary Impressionism.

A subtle and elegant stylist, Keyserling's narrative is unforgettable for its evocative ambience and "feel". His most emblematic work is perhaps Fürstinnen (Princesses), only superficially related to the typical German 19th century Schlossroman. Somehow midway between Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...

 and Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...

, there is a certain pessimistic kinship between Keyserling and Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...

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Works

• Fräulein Rosa Herz- Eine Kleinstadtliebe (Miss Pink heart. A small town love) (1887)
• Die dritte Stiege (The third staircase) (1892)
• Die schwarze Flasche (1902)
• Beate und Mareille. Eine Schloßgeschichte (1903)
• Schwüle Tage (1904)
• Seine Liebeserfahrung (1906)
• Dumala (1908)
• Bunte Herzen (1909)
• Wellen
  Wellen (novel)
  Wellen is a novel by Eduard von Keyserling first published in German in 1911. Set during a long hot summer in a small fishing village somewhere on the Baltic Sea, most likely on the Curonian Spit, it depicts a group of aristocratic city-dwellers spending their holidays in that remote part of the...
  
  (1911)
• Abendliche Häuser (1914)
• Im stillen Winkel (1914)
• Nicky (1914)
• Am Südhang (1914/16)
• Fürstinnen (1917)
• Feierstagskinder (1918)
• Gesammelte Erzählungen, ed. E. Heilborn, 4 Bde., Frankfurt a.M.1971-1973

Further reading

• Richard A. Koc, The German Gesellschaftsroman at the Turn of the Century. A Comparison of the Works of Theodor Fontane and Eduard von Keyserling; (= EHSchr 1, 542); Bern 1982
• Richard A. Weber, Color and light in the writings of Eduard von Keyserling; (= Studies in modern German literature 39); New York 1990