Im Schlaraffenland

Im Schlaraffenland, a novel by H. Mann, published in 1900, and sub-titled Ein Roman unter feinen Leuten. It describes the attempt, at first successful but ending in failure, of a young provincial student to enter the world of letters and nouveau riche society (the Cockaigne or pays de cocagne of the title). It is set in Berlin about 1893. Andreas Zumsee finds that literary and intellectual abilities, with which he is not particularly well furnished, matter less than the considerable sexual attraction he exerts, especially on mature women. The world he enters is virtually ruled by the Jewish financier Türkheim.

Andreas captivates Frau Adelheid Türkheim, who makes his fortune, and sets him up in a luxury flat as her lover. Meanwhile Türkheim spends vast sums on keeping as his mistress a vulgar 17-year-old product of the gutter. This ‘Achnes’ Matzke, renamed on the rise of her fortune Bienaimée, conducts a barely secret liaison with Andreas. The discovery of this provides a humiliating experience for both Türkheims, who are, however, powerful enough to force the young couple into marriage with financial provision, and to exclude them from their society.

At the centre of the work is a performance of Rache, a vicious parody of G. Hauptmann's Die Weber, which is enthusiastically applauded by a bourgeois audience. Im Schlaraffenland is a savagely satirical novel, which makes liberal use of caricature and the grotesque.