Max Brod - Schloss Nornepygge, published in 1908, was hailed as "the most modern of modern books" and transports us into the world of Walder Nornepygge, a rich, civilization-weary, and overly refined young man in a desperate search for his identity.

Max Brod, Schloss Nornepygge. 1908

A meteoric rise with a rebelliously decadent key work: In the literary world of Berlin's bohemians, this novel made its young Prague author instantly famous and gave modernism its signature. Finally, the most important of the early, sensational texts by Franz Kafka's friend and estate administrator can be rediscovered.

Schloss Nornepygge, published in 1908, was hailed as "the most modern of modern books" and transports us into the world of Walder Nornepygge, a rich, civilization-weary, and overly refined young man in a desperate search for his identity. With each chapter, he commits himself to a new lifestyle, pursues different ideas, and throws himself into the arms of new loves. He thus traverses the entire spectrum of life plans conceivable at the time, between Eros and Satanism, Romanticism, adventurism, debauchery, and asceticism. In doing so, he not only changes styles like clothes, but also immediately disenchants them as mere illusions. How deeply was Kafka influenced by this early Brod, with his ingenious experiments and all-encompassing ironization of the world? This becomes clear only when reading this critical edition, which is supplemented by contemporary reviews, an afterword, and commentaries.

it probably wouldn’t buy you much, even if you really were the one who possibly wrote the first english review of max brod’s debut novel »schloss nornepygge« on the net. it’s the very same novel that brod published when he wasn’t even twenty five years old. at the same time, »schloss nornepygge« is a novel hardly anyone gives a damn about these days. still, i can tell you: it doesn’t feel half bad to be the first one writing an english language review of a forgotten novel and to clock in as number one from time to time, even though it’s not as cool as one might think, especially when writing in sloppy english. what i won’t be able to answer in the course of this review: why »schloss nornepygge« has not been reissued and could only be purchased as a relatively expensive reproduction or facsimile since it was included in the collected works of max brod, published by kurt wolff around 1918.

speaking of brod … did you know that some whizz-kid made up the term »brodernism« in an article featured in »the los angeles review of books« just days ago? although he didn’t explicitly refer to brod, he does seem to have literature like »schloss nornepygge« in mind, therefore making max brod something like the »godfather of brodernism«.

back to nornepygge: in this very castle, or more precisely in one of its lodges, walder, a noble descendant of the nornepygge line, socializes with the four club members johanna lock (a german poet and thinker), jean d’ormi (a police inspector/police spy), john rocketby (who in bourgeois life plies the trade of an assassin) and guachen (a hunchbacked dwarf and also a theater director who runs a »satanic varieté«). together they make up the »Differenzentierten-Loge«, the club of the differentiated. they are people of refined style, not necessarily in regard to fashion: what is taken for granted should not be done or said amongst them. therein, however, as guachen acknowledges, lies an ideal that they all strive for without ever achieving it. for walder, nonetheless, who has been writing a philosophical treatise on »freedom« for many years, differentiating himself from the ordinary is the only way to be free, as he let’s us know. below nornepygge castle with its parks and below the same hilltop on which schloss nornepygge and a handful of castles stand, lies the »city«, which, like kafka’s village in »the castle«, remains nameless and which walder nornepygge only knows from his elevated vantage point, as there is little reason for him, the nobleman, to enter the sphere of mortals. up to this point, it is almost an inverted version of kafka’s text, in that we experience a story from the perspective of the castle’s owner, who looks down on the village/city and holds rural or ordinary life in low regard. in brod’s as well as in kafka’s text, the city or village are nameless. but these are not the only similarities between the two novels, which were written roughly 15 years apart. guachen, with his dark driving forces, who in walder’s view embodies the completely distinct and ideal person, attracts walder nornepygge’s fascination, which at the same time leaves him in a clinch with his high father, who recognizes in guachen nothing less than a very bad influence. nevertheless, to say that the conflict between father and son is a specifically kafkaesque problem would be a misconception, as it is closer to a generational problem that was vividly reflected in literature at this particular time or epoch.

in the course of the first chapters, walder seems to succumb to the fascination of the hunchback dwarf (who also has to stand trial for an ominous death), while simultaneously expressing a certain contempt for women, at least right before his relatives from stettin appear: uncle alex and his two daughters, one of them the enchanting and gentle natured charlotte. it is only then that the novel quite unexpectedly and abruptly steers in new directions, as it will do over and over again within its 500 pages. walder leaves the club of the differentiated, undergoing his first of at least three transformations. for as the novel makes clear, walder nornepygge struggles with being a differentiated aristocrat and being a differentiated aristocrat only, as he would like to be everything and everyone at the same time, but seldomly a differentiated aristocrat only. at times it almost feels as if a close relative or ancestor of musil’s ulrich, the man without qualities himself, was to emerge right in front of you: walder, despairing on numerous occassions, offers us a glimpse into his fragile soul by telling us that he, in truth, is completely indifferent to everything in life, that everything is therefore of absolutely equal importance to him and that he would like to be everything and everyone at the same time.

it is precisely this arrangement that enables brod to (over the course of 500 pages) lead us through a broad panopticon of early 20th century society, including bon vivants such as polledi, or lovers of the orgiastic, as well as numerous other aristocrats, revolutionaries (such as oironet) or the ascetic friend from walder’s youth, lodolf. or reckleiner, who is presented as a commercial genius in exile. or counts, who gladly leave their wives to walder. in places, the novel can be said to bear resemblance to many nineteenth century novels and their realist or naturalist aesthetics. and indeed: compared to kafka’s novels, which almost completely refuse to be categorized or to be put into context in a literary-historical sense (due to their subject matter or language) and therefore seem to be quite timeless, »schloss nornepygge« shows a strong signature of its time — at least telling from its language. even compared to kafka’s first novel, »der verschollene« / »amerika«, the language at times seems loaded with pathos or interspersed with long monologues and observations that hint at a neurotic protagonist — quite symptomatic of modernist literature around 1900, also called »the literature of fin de siecle« or »decadence«. and yet »schloss nornepygge« is everything but a typical novel of its time, and despite similarity on the surface level is hardly comparable to mann’s »buddenbrooks« or schnitzler’s »der weg ins freie«. it’s due to its many satirical elements that the novel draws more parallels to flaubert’s »bouvard and pecuchet« than to mann’s or schnitzler’s novel, as bouvard and pecuchet tend to reinvent themselves from chapter to chapter, just like walder nornepygge. and it is precisely the humor, the ridiculousness with which the protagonist is portrayed, that gives this novel its peculiarity and its distinctiveness, which in the end make it stand out. even if it doesn’t quite match kafka’s novel in regard of its comedic value, it still is a darkly humorous tale. brod seems to delight in torturing and tormenting his protagonist, throwing him into downright absurd roles and constellations, and it is easy to visualize the author sitting at its nightly table and suffer from one laughing fit after another — just like his close pal kafka.

the ironic and sarcastic references are countless: especially when walder seems to finally find a form of freedom by leaving society, leading an ascetic life in a hermitage by then, at least until his friends pay him a sudden visit and land on his doorstep. they have turned into a handful of revolutionists, promoting walder to the rank of their consul, leader of their revolutionary movement, all against his will.

or when walder has become so indifferent in terms of making decisions that he judges every potential reaction as equally appropriate and thus falls into a state of terrible inaction, a paralysis, even when he is hit in the face, making him nothing less than a sad clown. his path to freedom has led him into a cul de sac, and what he once thought of as self-transformation ends in an anti-metamorphosis.*

there are more examples for the novel’s cruel jokes; i’ll spare you the grotesquely humorous ending.

if you’re more in the mood for nonsensical jokes and mildly comic situations, the novel’s got you covered as well: for example, when vicious guachen keeps insulting his “piano virtuoso” for not playing fast enough. or when differentiated club members argue that they’d have to act in a certain way as they can’t be compared to fictional characters in a novel. or when an acquaintance turns out to be an almost immortal insurgent who claims to have been involved with every major uprising on the entire planet in the last three hundred years, from europe to africa to india to the usa.

by now it should be clear that »schloss nornepygge« by no means takes itself too seriously or important, even if its language shows quite some pathos every once in a while (fear not, it’s not getting anywhere close to goethe-territory; some passages could even be called stream-of-consciousness-ish). this makes for an interesting contrast between histoire and discours, between the things that are portrayed in the text and its linguistic modus operandi (to simplify genette’s narratological categories).

but of course it’s not all nonsense. even in his early twenties brod was simply too clever for that. in fact, he repeatedly tends to add to the philosophical discourse of his time and his predecessors — especially schopenhauer — when he deals with the concept of »freedom«. for brod in his somewhat pessimistic worldview, »indifferentism«, a terminus he made up himself, is the only appropriate way to deal with living in a period that best could be described as »decadence« — which is why being indifferent to all the people and events surrounding you could be considered a way to one’s personal freedom. but it’s not as easy as that. the existentialist category, »freedom«, which brod had explored for years, definitely culminated in an impressive way in »schloss nornepygge«: while some of the novel’s staff unscrupulously celebrate orgies or downright give away their wives and thus indulge in a form of freedom that climaxes in a violent and bloody revolution, walder is the one who is trapped in his idea of freedom, compulsively trying to be a myriad of different walders at once. is this what the majority of us dream about? to be able to do everything at the same time, to see no obstacles in our way, to have no financial restrictions? the novel clearly states its point of view that this does not necessarily lead to freedom, or to progress. because if you want to go everywhere at the same time, you’re not going anywhere. you will tear yourself apart in mid-air like a rumpelstiltskin.

but maybe i wrote forth the novel in my head and it’s only half as brilliant as it seems. after all, there are supposed to be as many interpretations of texts as there are readers, they say. and anyway, the smartest people, people who are way more clever than me, write articles for the »los angeles review of books«, and they claim that novels of the brodernist kind aren’t worth much of your time and are only good for bragging on goodreads and the like. i don’t think people that clever — whizz-kids, whizz-kids — can be all wrong. or can they? - Tom Ghostly

Schloss Nornepygge, der Roman des Indifferenten : Brod, Max, 1884- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive