Maler Nolten

Maler Nolten, a two-volume novel by E. Mörike. Written between 1828 and 1832 (mainly in 1830) and published in 1832, it is one of the many novels of the early 19th c. which are indebted to Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. Maler Nolten is a confused novel in which the principal characters are depressives and hypochondriacs, who succumb to the burdens of life.

Theobald Nolten himself is an artist who has forsaken his rustic love Agnes for Countess Konstanze. His actor friend Larkens endeavours to bring Nolten and Agnes together again and is at first successful; but Larkens and Agnes put an end to their lives, and Nolten dies because he lacks strength to face life. A mysterious vagrant, Elisabeth, who intervenes in Nolten's life, also perishes. The first book contains the verse play Der letzte König von Orplid (see Orplid), which Larkens and Nolten perform at court. They are suspected of seditious political symbolism and are imprisoned for a time.

The novel contains a number of Mörike's best-known poems, including part of ‘Der Feuerreiter’, ‘Gesang zu zweien in der Nacht’, ‘Elfenlied’ (these three in Der letzte König von Orplid), ‘Das verlassene Mägdlein’, ‘Er ist's’, ‘Im Frühling’, ‘Der Jäger’, ‘Agnes’, ‘Jung Volker’, four ‘Peregrina’ poems, a stanza from ‘Gebet’, the sonnet ‘An die Geliebte’, and ‘Lied vom Winde’. The titles are not used in the novel. The first published version of the work, also referred to as the Urnolten, was termed Novelle (Maler Nolten, Novelle in zwei Teilen von Eduard Mörike. Mit einer Musikbeilage). Throughout his life, and especially in the last two decades, Mörike, who was dissatisfied with his novel, worked at a revision, which was approaching completion at his death. It was published in 1877 by J. Klaiber, who disregarded some of Mörike's amendments and made his own arbitrary alterations.