L’eretico di Soana

[Autom. eng. transl.] Considered by Ladislao Mittner, the great scholar of German literature, a "masterpiece of conscious, very happy and coherent classical workmanship", this story represents the culmination of the narrative art of Hauptmann, Nobel Prize for literature in 1912, and contains all the tormenting questions and themes of his work. In particular, the repudiation of Christianity in favor of a full and unconditional faith in the eternal generating force of nature. On the slopes of Mount Generoso, in the pure atmosphere of the southern Alps, an Italian priest suffers the irresistible charm of a woman whose natural amorality represents the innocence of unspoiled nature. He will live with her like a new Adam, rediscovering his own integral humanity. As Mittner writes again, Hauptmann "was able to represent in this story the great goddess of life and love in the figure of this beautiful and vigorous mother and lover aware of her own eternal mission".