The Swan Villa (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Martin Walser
- First Published: 1980
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: A summer in the 1970’s
- Setting: Southwestern Germany, near Lake Constance
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: 1970’s, Family or family life, Obsession, Fantasy, Real estate, Germany or German people, Middle age
- Locales: Germany, Lake Constance, Germany
Characters Discussed
Gottlieb Zürn (GOHT-leeb tsewrn), a real estate broker living in the Lake Constance area of southern Germany. He is almost fifty years old and is haunted by a sense of failure and inadequacy in business and family life. He feels harassed by the details of everyday living (such as car insurance) and troubled by inopportune lust. He likes to speculate about the real ages of his acquaintances. People and events in the novel are seen through his eyes, although this is a third-person narrative. His rival real estate agents seem far wealthier and more stylish,...
[The entire page is 950 words long]
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