Overton's Overture

I’ve begun with firsts in the last two posts and I will continue that here. Today’s story is the first by a German author so far. Paul Heyse’s “The Fury” is a strange little tale that replays yesterday’s relationship between violence and sexual desire in more explicit detail. Though set in Naples “The Fury” reads like a gothic exploration of how two individuals with elaborate interior lives decide to be together. "The Fury" was first published in English as part of this collection from 1878 The seeming pitter-patter of the day is prolonged past the point of onomatopoeia. Turning from detail to detail, it appears that life is moving drab or slow but Heyse’s characters have internal lives overflowing with contradictions, questions and wonders. With a subdued style that still seems to have a kind of breadth, I was reminded of Robert Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest . Religious desire for salvation and the quotidian structuring of sensibility are topics for both Heyse...