A Warning Against Drink

I have gotten several things read over the last few days, but I keep forgetting to post any of it. Some more Gotthelf, but also a couple of other things. I'll try to break them up in order to get a few more posts out of them!

Last Friday I finished another Gotthelf novella, Wie fünf Mädchen im Branntwein jämmerlich umkommen. That title does not translate very well into English, or at least I don't think so. Something like, How Five Young Women Perish Miserably Due to Brandy (or literally "in brandy"). It is an early work of Gotthelf's and a piece of social criticism. When Gotthelf was writing (1838), the canton of Bern had recently liberalized its system for granting licenses to operate a pub. At the same time, new methods of producing cheap brandy from different sources, including even the ubiquitous potato, were developed. As a consequence, inns and pubs sprang up throughout the countryside, creating a new temptation for poor laborers and contributing to the ruin and poverty of many a family.

In protest and as a warning against the dangerous effects of this new, easy access to cheap liquor, Gotthelf wrote this novella of about 80 pages. He describes the fates of five young women, first describing their backgrounds and how they began down the path of drunkenness, and then circling back to tell what became of each of them. The stories are grim and all too realistic, as the women become terribly ill, or give birth to multiple crippled and neglected children, or lose their sanity. In one way or another, they all meet a sad and early end--an outcome, Gotthelf wants us to understand, that should have been preventable.

More posts coming in the next days on other things I've been reading.

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