Das Landhaus am Rhein
Landhaus am Rhein, Das, a five-volume novel by B. Auerbach, published in 1869. It is divided into 15 books.
Herr Sonnenkamp, a German who has made a vast fortune in the USA, has built himself a magnificent house overlooking the Rhine (the indications in the book lead us to imagine it a few miles upstream from Koblenz). Here he lives in princely luxury with his neurotic wife and his young son Roland. A daughter, Manna (Hermanna), is in a pension attached to a convent. Sonnenkamp seeks a tutor for his son, and a nobleman of the region, Otto von Prancken, recommends a former regimental comrade, Captain Erich Dournay, son of a deceased professor. Roland quickly takes to Erich, who is a man of elevated Liberal principles, as well as great strength of character. Prancken hopes to marry Manna and is soon treated by Sonnenkamp as his prospective son-in-law. Erich's position is strengthened by a friendship with a neighbour of Sonnenkamp, Graf Clodwig Wolfsgarten, whose beautiful young wife (Bella) seems outwardly content and considerate, but is inwardly embittered and ruthless. Sonnenkamp decides to seek ennoblement, and his supporters set in motion a train of intrigue and bribery. It has in the meantime become apparent that there are sinister secrets in his past. Indeed Manna's announced intention of taking the veil is due to a suspicion of her father's iniquity, for which she proposes to atone. The progress of the patent of nobility is slow, but at last all is in order. At the formal audience with the Prince of the land, Sonnenkamp is dramatically revealed to have been a slave trader and to have committed murders, and the question of ennoblement lapses. He returns embittered and frustrated to his home, where his daughter has turned from Prancken and engaged herself to Erich Dournay.
Sonnenkamp quickly rallies from his disgrace at court, for he is a man of immense power and dynamism. The American Civil War is about to break out and he decides to join the cause of the Southern States. He takes with him all the money he has earned by slaving, leaving the rest, and he persuades the freshly widowed Bella, Gräfin Wolfsgarten, to accompany him. Erich and Manna are married, and they, together with Roland, who has imbibed Liberal principles from Erich, also set out for America, where the two men intend to join the anti-slavery forces of the North. An epilogue of letters (Bk. 15) reveals the deaths of Sonnenkamp and Gräfin Bella and reports the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
The novel is peopled by a vast number of characters, who are persuasively presented and astutely motivated. They symbolize, and frequently debate, the urgent social problems of the day, particularly the structure of society, the present and future roles of religion, especially the Roman Catholic Church, and the burning issue of the day, Negro slavery in the USA. Though the plot may seem artificial, it is sustained by many unexpected details.
