Fervor and Fiction: Therese von Bacheracht and Her Works by Hugh Powell (review)

Book Reviews49 HUGH POWELL. Fervor and Fiction: Thérèse von Bacheracht and Her Works. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1996. 143p. Ijy now, we expect that an author biography will do more than simply present the personality of a historical figure, even if it only proves that a once forgotten writer is worthy ofour attention again. Sadly, Hugh Powell's re-discovery ofthe nineteenth-century writer, traveler, and social observer Thérèse von Bacheracht (pseudonym "Thérèse") fails to justify why we should invest any critical or even pleasurable interest in this author. Powell simply recounts the details of her life, for the most part paraphrasing her own diaries, letters, and travel writings. We are left wondering why we cannot simply read her autobiographical materials firsthand instead of receiving them through this unsatisfactory filter. Powell seems to sense that his project requires legitimization. Perhaps this is why he allows only those attributes which make his subject appear intelligent, compassionate, or, even more troublingly, "charming" and "attractive" (14), to come to light. That Powell is more interested in focusing on the "humane" side of Bacheracht than in delving into her life critically, or in placing her writing in any real literary, historical, or critical context becomes apparent in his division ofthe biography into chapters bearing the titles "The Woman,""The Voyager," "The Witness," "The Fiction." He focuses on aspects ofher life that seemingly match these headings. But why Powell considers Bacheracht the "woman" as something separate from Bacheracht the "voyager" or the "witness" never becomes clear. Equally mysterious is his decision to divide her "fiction" from the components ofher personality since he repeatedly links the events of Bacheracht's life to the content of her fiction. "The Woman" consists of rough details of Bacheracht's education by her indulgent father, her forced marriage ofconvenience (instead ofthe marriage for love of which she dreamed), and her attachment to dramatist Karl Gutzkow. Intent on impressing us with how highly Bacheracht's peers thought of her, Powell includes glowing contemporary accounts of her character and appearance. Typical of these assessments is the following: "Neck, bosom, hands and feet—all were a sculptor's dream. For good measure she had an attractive voice and eloquence that were nothing but enchanting" (14). While many of Bacheracht's contemporaries may have found her attractive, it is rather disturbing that a chapter entitled "The Woman" trades in such stereotypicalIy feminine descriptions. Intensifying Powell's portrayal of Bacheracht in conventionally "female" terms are his accounts ofher unhappy marriage ofconvenience and her devastation at the death of her only child. Powell's Bacheracht emerges as a woman starved for love and the fulfillments of motherhood, a tragic figure who turned to writing as solace for the torments ofher woman's soul. Powell tries tojustify this attention to Bacheracht's first marriage by emphasizing her opposition to forced marriage. In fact, it seems we must believe that Bacheracht's ardent support of this cause justifies the "fervor" of Powell's title. But we never learn just how fervently against marriages of convenience nor how 50Rocky Mountain Review stridently she denounced any other social injustices, despite Powell's quick portrayal ofher at many points throughout the book as a supporter ofsocial justice. "The Voyager" begins with an unimpressive epigram taken from one of Bacheracht's novels: "Travel cultivates the mind more than anything else" (23). Powell must believe that Bacheracht possessed an eminently cultivated mind, since "[flew German women in the 19th century can have traveled as often and as far as Thérèse" (23), but in his presentation, her recorded experiences contain few noteworthy insights, few striking descriptions of what she observed. In fact, Powell offers no evidence that traveling did much to cultivate Bacheracht's mind. He does, however, point out that she was "repeatedly frustrated by the inadequate facilities and hotels, including unfriendly service and unacceptable hygiene" (28). "The Witness" focuses on Bacheracht's observations ofsociety, and Powell foregrounds those events which he believes influenced her writings. For instance, Powell finds similarities between Bacheracht and the heroine of her Weltglück in that the two share disappointed love relationships and disregard for the hypocrisies of the...