Waldwinkel

by Theodor Storm

"Waldwinkel" by Theodor Storm is a novella written in 1874. A botanist in his early forties returns from exile and becomes infatuated with a seventeen-year-old orphan girl. They spend a summer together in a secluded forest mansion called Waldwinkel. As Richard prepares to marry the soon-to-be eighteen-year-old Franziska, she makes a fateful decision. The story explores the complexities of age, power, and desire against the backdrop of mid-nineteenth-century German society.