Die Chronik der Sperlingsgasse

Chronik der Sperlingsgasse, Die, the first novel of W. Raabe, written in 1854-5 and published in 1856. Its setting is Berlin in the first half of the century. The backbone of the novel is Johannes Wacholder, the narrator, an ageing bachelor, who has lived most of his life in the Sperlingsgasse and is its devoted, but unmethodical, historian. Wacholder sees life whole. He records the misery, want, and bitterness, and the many tragedies of the street, but he also sees humour and determination overcoming adversity. The continuous thread of happiness in the story is the love of his adopted daughter Elise and her orphaned cousin Gustav Berg. These two, whose lives began in a dark story of seduction and despair, prove themselves able to face the vicissitudes of life, making a serenely happy marriage. Though the novel is not free from sentimentality, Raabe shows an acute sympathy with human suffering, a strong sense of the values of courage and tenacity, and a lively awareness of the cathartic virtue of humour. The Berlin street in which Raabe lived at the time, the Spreegasse, has been renamed Sperlingsgasse after the book.