Die Innerste: Erzählung

by Wilhelm Raabe

"Die Innerste: Erzählung" by Wilhelm Raabe is a novella written in 1874. Set against the symbolic backdrop of the demonic Harz river Innerste, the story follows Albrecht Bodenhagen, a wayward youth who returns from the Seven Years' War transformed. He becomes a diligent miller and marries, settling into domestic life at his father's mill. But his past resurfaces when an old comrade arrives, and a former lover with red hair watches from the shadows, threatening his newfound stability with jealousy and supernatural omens.