WERFEL, FRANZ. - German writer, b. in Prague to a Jewish family on Sept. 10, 1890, d. in Beverly Hills (California) on Aug. 27, 1945.
He made his debut very young with collections of lyric poetry, such as Weltfreund (1911), Wir sind (1912), Einander (1914), which, in an inner search for spiritual values, generally bear the mark of the Expressionist milieu and of the atmosphere of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's taste. The first novel too, Nicht der Mörder sondern der Ermordete ist schuldig, reveals the same influences. His plays Spiegelmensch (1912), which is a magical trilogy, and Paulus unter den Juden (1926), which is rather a dramatic legend, are lyrical visions rather than true dramas; technically better constructed is Suarez und Maximilian, a historical drama written in 1924. But W. finds his most personal expression in the novel. In Verdi, der Roman der Oper (1923) W. polemicizes covertly against Wagner; in Barbara oder die Frömmigkeit he knows how to find sincere and convincing accents in treating a theme dear to him, that of the humble, humanly simple and pure faith, as against the perversity of the world. There follow, inspired by the same ideal, Der Abituriententag (1928), Das Reich Gottes in Böhmen (1930), Die Geschwister von Neapel (1931); but in the novel Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh (1934), which narrates the epic story of a small community of Armenians who in the name of the faith fight against the Turks, W. reaches his full maturity as a writer. Of his last works: Aus der Dämmerung einer Welt (1936); Der veruntreute Himmel (1939); Das Lied von
Bernadette (1941); Jakobovsky und der Oberst (1943); Stern der Ungeborenen (1946), Bernadette represents the noblest lyrical exaltation of that pure and ingenuous faith, whose call he had felt so powerfully.
Bibliography3 works
Sergio Lupi