Die Insel Felsenburg

Insel Felsenburg, Die, accepted title of a novel by J. G. Schnabel, published in four parts in 1731, 1732, 1736, and 1743 respectively. It appeared under the pseudonym Gisander with the descriptive title reading in full: Wunderliche Fata einiger See-Fahrer, absonderlich Alberti Julii, eines gebohrnen Sachsens, Welcher in seinem 18den Jahre zu Schiffe gegangen, durch Schiff-Bruch selb 4te an eine grausame Klippe geworffen worden, nach deren Übersteigung das schönste Land entdeckt, sich daselbst mit seiner Gefährtin verheyrathet, aus solcher Ehe eine Familie von mehr als 300. Seelen erzeuget, das Land vortrefflich angebauet, durch besondere Zufälle erstaunens-würdige Schätze gesammlet, seine in Teutschland ausgekundschafften Freunde glücklich gemacht, am Ende des 1728sten Jahres, als in seinem Hunderten Jahre, annoch frisch und gesund gelebt, und vermuthlich noch zu dato lebt, entworffen von dessen Bruders-Sohnes-Sohnes-Sohne, Mons. Eberhard Julio, Curieusen Lesern aber zum vermuthlichen Gemüths-Vergnügen ausgefertiget, auch par-Commission dem Drucke übergeben von Gisandern. According to this title, which gives a succinct account of Albert Julius's success story on the island, the author is Eberhard Julius, and Gisander merely the editor, a piece of early 18th-c. realistic bluff. The narrative is set in a frame (see Rahmen).

On the occasion of a visit by a descendant, Albertus Julius tells the story of his life. After considerable sufferings in youth in Europe, he sets out on a voyage, in the course of which the ship is wrecked in the South Atlantic. Albertus and three others, two men and a woman, survive. The two men are eliminated, one killing the other, and the murderer spiking himself accidentally on Albertus's sword. So Albertus and the woman, Concordia, marry and have numerous progeny, and Albertus rules harmoniously over a flourishing patriarchal state. The later volumes partly repeat the first and add new anecdotes. The story combines exciting adventures, erotic experiences, and the spectacle of a God-fearing ideal state as a refuge from corrupt Europe. Popular at the time, it was forgotten in the course of the 18th c. and was then rediscovered by L. Tieck, who published a version under the now current title Die Insel Felsenburg (1828). This version appeared, ed. M. Greiner, in 1959; Insel Felsenburg, Pt. 1, ed. V. Meid and I. Springer-Strand, in 1979.