Description

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Based on a true story, The Jew's Beech centres on two brutal murders in rural Westphalia – the first of a local forester and the second of a Jewish moneylender near a beech tree – and the impact these events have on the life of Friedrich Mergel, a local herdsman with a turbulent family history.

A prototype of the murder mystery and a thoughtful examination of village society, this intriguing novella contains hints of the Gothic and the uncanny – ominous thunderstorms, mysterious disappearances, eerie doppelgängers and grisly discoveries in the depths of the forest – as well as a famously ambiguous climax.

About the Author

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Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797–1848) is considered one of the most important German poets of the nineteenth century. Her classic novella The Jew's Beech is her only completed work of prose fiction.