Transcriber's Notes:
1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/wishnovel00suderich
Since the beginning of time men have been accustomed to regard the endof a century as a period of decadence. The waning nineteenth century isno more fortunate than its predecessors. We are continually beinginvited to speculate on the signs around us of decay in politics, inreligion, in art, in the whole social fabric. It is not for us toinquire here concerning the truth or the ethics of that belief. But, asfar as literature is concerned, it is very certain that the last yearsof the present century will be remembered for the extraordinary talentshown by a few young novelists and dramatists in most of the countriesof Europe. In England, we can point to Mr. Rudyard Kipling and Mr. J.M. Barrie; in France, to M. Paul Margueritte and M. Marcel Prévost; inBelgium, to M. Maurice Maeterlinck; in Germany, to Gerhard Hauptmann,Ludwig Fulda, and Hermann Sudermann.
The events of Sudermann's life are few; and he has the good sense toprefer to be known through his works rather than through the medium ofthe professional interviewer. The facts here set down, however, we oweto the courtesy of Sudermann himself a circumstance that lends them anadditional interest.
Hermann Sudermann was born September 30, 1857, in Matzicken, a poorvillage in Heydekrug, a district of East Prussia, situated on theRussian frontier. It is not unlikely that the following passage takenfrom one of his novels bears some resemblance to the place:--
"The estate that my father farmed was situated on a high hill close tothe Prussian frontier; an uncultivated, wild park sloping gentlytowards the open fields formed one side of the hill, while the othersank steeply down to a little river. On the farther side of the streamyou could see a dirty little Polish frontier village.
"Standing at the edge of the precipice you looked down on the ruinousshingle roofs; the smoke came up through the rifts in them. You lookedright into the midst of the miserable life of the dirty streets wherehalf naked children wallowed in the filthy where the women squattedidly on the threshold, and where the men in torn smocks, with spade onshoulder, betook themselves to the alehouses.
"There was nothing attractive about the town, and the rabble offrontier Cossacks, who galloped here and there on their catlike, drowsynags, did not increase the charm."
Sudermann began his education at the school of Elbing. But his parentswere in poor circumstances, and at the age of fourteen he found itnecessary to think about earning a living, and was apprenticed to achemist. He continued his studies in his leisure time with such goodresults that he returned to school, this time at Tilsit. In 1875 hewent to the university of Königsberg, and in 1877 to that of Berlin.His first intention was to become a teacher, and while still pursuinghis studies undertook for a few months the duties of tutor in the houseof the poet Hans Hopfen. But