The Spell (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Hermann Broch
- First Published: 1976
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Allegory
- Time of Work: The twentieth century
- Setting: The Austrian Alps
- Genres: Long fiction, Allegory
- Subjects: Twentieth century, Villages, Small-town life, Rites or ceremonies, Nazism or Nazis, Austria or Austrians, Radio or radio broadcasting, Fertility, Seasons
- Locales: Alps, Austria
Characters Discussed
The narrator, a country doctor, formerly an obstetrician and deputy director on the staff of a large urban hospital. This aging physician has settled in Kuppron, a remote Alpine village, to get over a failed love affair with a fellow doctor named Barbara (about whom he reminisces at length) and in search of a purer lifestyle. He is fascinated by the archaic mountain madness that he witnesses and by the atavistic surfacing of primal drives and delusions among the inhabitants. In various ways, the doctor attempts to atone for a certain guilt incurred by...
[The entire page is 569 words long]
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