KELLER, Gottfried (Keller Gottfried)

(1819-1890)
Born July 19, 1819 in Glattfeldene near Zurich. Expelled from school, in 1840-1842 he studied painting in Munich. Disappointed in his vocation, with large debts back home and turned to poetry. Keller's first book of poetry was published in 1846. In 1848 he received a government scholarship that allowed him to go to Germany and learn first in Heidelberg and then in Berlin.
In Berlin, Keller made the acquaintance with the leading German writers, and lectures in Geydelburge materialist philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach had a decisive influence on his outlook. In Berlin, the same work has begun on the first edition of the novel Green Henry (Der grne Heinrich, 1854-1855; 2 nd ed. 1879-1880). In 1855, earning first success in his literary efforts, Keller returned to Switzerland and lived with his mother and sister until 1861, when he received the post of State Secretary of the canton Zurich. In 1870 he resumed his literary activities, and in 1870-1886 published novels and short stories, which brought him European fame. Keller died in Zurich, July 16, 1890.

Poetry Keller (Poems - Gedichte, 1846, 1851, and the collection of poems - Gesammelte Gedichte, 1883) characterized by sincerity and simplicity of images and color. Of paramount importance in the history of German-language literature are novels and short stories Keller. Green Henry is perhaps the most exemplary novel in the tradition of Wilhelm Meister, JW Goethe. The second edition of 1880 demonstrated the transformation of the image of Henry: from deep in your own world of romance, he became a man, conscious of its responsibility to society. The novel is replete with vivid scenes of provincial life, marked by a remarkable continuity in the Swiss tradition, shaping the young hero.

The belief in the rightness of natural and humane order, which can not jeopardize either by incompetence or by indecision, also became the subject of a number of kellerovskih stories. As people from Zeldvily (Die Leute von Seldwyla, 1856, 1873-1874) shows the confusion and absurdity of life in the small Swiss town. The collection of short stories Zurich (Zricher Novellen, 1879-1880) includes the most famous works of his small prose. Maxim (Das Sinngedicht, 1881) devoted to the issue of marriage and its moral justification in the framework of rationalist ethics, outside of religious precepts. Religious life was the contents of the collection of legends Seven (Sieben Legenden, 1873-1874). In all these works can be traced Keller's firm belief that compliance measures will ensure the happiness and sanity, to whom should be based civil society. Only the writer's last novel, Martin Zalander (Martin Salander, 1886), is imbued with a pessimistic view of democratic society, greed, deceit and empty phrase-mongering threatens to triumph over the traditional virtues.