1819–1890

Gottfried Keller

Appearances, identity and other people’s judgements. Keller combines close observation with subtle irony and questions of recognition and responsibility.

In Gottfried Keller’s fictional world, social judgements are rarely as certain as his characters believe. A cloak, a gesture or a silence may be enough for people to form a picture of someone. The narrator invites a closer look: sympathy and comic distance, shame and self-assertion coexist. That ambiguity gives Keller a distinctive place in the series.