Eine unglückliche Liebe

The "unfortunate love" that gives this novel its title arises from the passionate, tormenting relationship of a young man with an actress and cabaret performer. Friedrich loves Sibylle. However, his love is not reciprocated as he had hoped. He follows her, doing everything to be heard by her, but to no avail: the missed first kiss occurs later during their separation in Venice: "They knew that nothing had changed and that the wall of the thinnest glass, transparent as air and perhaps even sharper in reflecting the other’s appearance, remained between them." Resigned, Friedrich and Sibylle come to terms with that "wall" they see between them: "It was a boundary that they now respected." Thus, An Unfortunate Love is ultimately a book of resignation, a book of hopeless loneliness.