The Seventh Trunk (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Heinrich Böll
- First Published: 1965
- Type of Plot: Antistory
- Time of Work: The mid-twentieth century
- Setting: Cologne, Germany
- Principal Characters: The unnamed narrator, Jakob Maria Hermes, Heinrich Knecht
- Genres: Short fiction, Antistory
- Subjects: Twentieth century, Authors or writers, Europe or Europeans, Literature, Writing, Germany or German people
- Locales: Cologne, Germany
The Story
The unnamed narrator of “The Seventh Trunk” is a writer who hopes to find or to create the perfect work of fiction. Early in his career, he thought that this goal had been achieved. He read in the Bockelmunden Parish News the first installment of what was supposed to be a two-part story by an author named Jakob Maria Hermes. Unfortunately, however, the publication went out of business, so the conclusion of Hermes's story never appeared.
The narrator gives only the briefest account of its plot: A nine-year-old girl is lured into joining a religious...
[The entire page is 1475 words long]
