A review by bookishwendy
Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist

3.0

Kohlhaas is a bit of a legendary figure from German history. He was a fairly successful horsedealer until a Furst ("prince") wrongly confiscates some of his horses, and while Kohlhaas struggles with the bureaucratic red tape to reclaim them, neglects the animals and abuses Kohlhaas' hired man. Kohlhaas sues, but a merchant's word doesn't hold much value against the prince, so K. decides to take the law into his own hands. There's a hint of Kafkaesque futility about the whole thing, surprisingly, as this was written in the early 19th century.

So, maybe this wasn't the best choice for plunging back into German-language literature after a two or so year hiatus. While I have little difficulty reading physical description and action, I found my self really struggling with a lot of the civic, political, and legal vocabulary in Michael Kohlhaas. While I still understood the basic plot of the story, I'm sure that most everything of nuance sailed right over my head. I take the blame for this, since I listened to an audio version from Librivox (very nicely narrated) and forced myself to plow on ahead without stopping to look things up. Often, forcing myself to rely on context works well enough for me, but I was pretty lost by the time Dr. Martin Luther showed up. The moments of high drama were gripping--a woman assaulted by a guard, a death-by-quartering--but I'll really have to go back again with the actual printed text to find out what I missed.