Another school read I didn't enjoy. This time I'm not sure I would have rated it better if it hadn't been an obligatory read. Gottfried Keller just isn't my sort of author. ( )

Unless I very much miss my guess, the only non-German-readers of this little volume have been motivated by curiosity about one of two musical connections to it. First, Keller was a great favorite of Richard Wagner, and we have accounts of his reading Keller's DER GRUENE HEINRICH to members of his later-life entourage. I myself couldn't whack-up anywhere near that kind of enthusiam, no matter how many others I share witth old RW. Second, this portion of Keller's DIE LEUTE VON SELDWYLA is the basis for Frederick Delius
incomparable opera A VILLAGE ROMEO AND JULIET, which I have reviewed elsewhere on LT. A reading of this text is instructive. The jist of Keller's story remains in Delius' libretto, but the emotional tone is very different. Whereas the opera is delirious heart-on-sleeve romanticism -- decades after the high-water mark of capital-R Romanticism -- Keller's original has a curiously reserved tone, even though he himself lived and worked in that earlier passionate age. The combination of gentle sympathy and yet something approaching cynicism recall Stendhal, believe it or not. Read the story, and think good thoughts about Vreli and Sali. ( )

Sad and romantic story, as the title itself could make clear. Beautiful description, mature style, classic story of two houses - or better families in this context - and a pair of star-cross'd lovers.
Definitely amusing story, but I do not feel the tragedy (which is inherent in Shakespeare’s drama). Good as a fairy tale, although with no happy-end, but nothing I would long to read for a second time. ( )

This is an excellent story - the sad story of Vrenchen and Sali who because of the family dispute between their fathers end up taking their lives by drowning. ( )

This was a set book when I was at school. We all went to see a blakc and white film of the book at Southampton University and all fell about laughing in the wrong places. I got to like the story and the tragedy and moved on to enjoy other stories by Keller. ( )