The classic ‘The stone bridal bed’ by Harry Mulisch is compulsory reading for many students. With this short summary you can start writing your own review.
Summary story
The story revolves around the American Norman Corinth. 13 years after he bombed the city of Dresden as a war pilot in World War II, he is invited to a dentist conference in this city. During this bombing his own plane was shot at and he was seriously injured. Some plastic surgery was performed on his face, which was badly bruised, but the damage is still visible.
He has not only suffered physically but also mentally. Thus, the marriage with his wife comes to nothing. It is therefore a stroke of luck that he is picked up by Hella Viebahn, a kind of hostess / guide who accompanies the congress and also turns out to be divorced.
Corinth explores the city and takes a guided tour. Thus he ends up on a hill from which he can view the damaged Dresden. Damage for which he is partly responsible. He therefore feels very weak.
After some reluctance, it turns out that Hella is not just a guide ?? wants to be for Corinth, which of course suits him well. He ends up in bed with her but after that no longer pays attention to her and sets his sights on another woman.
Corinth meets a West German named Schneiderhahn who, just like him, is fed up with speeches and so on and so they go out together in Dresden. They discover more about the city and each other’s past. For example, he learns from Schneiderhahn that he worked in concentration camps. At least that’s what Corinth thinks. Later this turns out to be wrong and he finds out that Schneiderhahn lied. He gets angry and drives up to him in the middle of the night and beats him up. The latter thinks that Corinth beats him because he had something to do with the concentration camps, but it is the other way around. Because he had nothing to do with the camps, Corinth is furious. Eventually he flees from Schneiderhahn with his car and then sets it on fire. His past has become completely clear to him.
Throughout the story there are some chants. who tell about bombed-out Dresden. These chants are right through his mind.
The characters
Norman Corinth
The protagonist in this story is Norman Corinth, an American. He is a dentist and receives an invitation to a conference for dentists in Dresden. When he arrives he seems a bit weak and uncomfortable. He often hears things. It’s like his head is haunted. To give everything a place and to escape reality, he puts it on a drink. And he takes refuge in Hella, although he has a wife. But his marriage is therefore not quite right. At first he seems like a weak person but as the book progresses he becomes stronger, more manipulative and smarter. He is very interested in the past of others and later this turns out because he himself has a shocking past. You know that he was involved in bombings, but it was only in the end that these bombings turned out to target Dresden. His body is still clearly damaged by these bombings, as he was shot himself. An attempt has been made to repair his face with plastic surgery, but this also left him with scars.
Hella Viebahn
Hella is a German hostess / guide at the congress visiting Corinth. She must accompany the foreign guests, including Corinth. From the beginning Corinth feels more for her but she does not respond to his advances. Eventually she ends up in bed with him and wants more later, but then Corinth in turn holds the boat off. Her name is derived from “Helena”, a character from Homer’s Iliad. Helen was the cause of the war in Troy and this refers to Hella who herself also has a past with war, but with World War II. Hella, unlike Corinth, seems like a strong person who has everything under control and lives her life how she planned it. Still, she has some breakdowns. She cries for Corinth and becomes emotional when Schneiderhahn talks about the war and the concentration camps. After all, she herself was in a concentration camp. She also had a child whose baby tooth she still wears around her neck.
Schneiderhahn
Schneiderhahn is also a dentist and attends the conference. He meets Corinth and together they go into town to escape the boring convention. Like Hella, he appears to have a strong personality. He is great company and answers everything. Philosophizing is one of his most fun activities and discussions are part of that. His philosophizing is often about the war in Dresden. He says he is a strong supporter of communism and regularly tells about the concentration camps. For example, he gives the impression to Corinth that he was a Nazi himself and, in fact, that he worked in a concentration camp. Corinth wants to know more about this and uses Hella to obtain this information for him. He discovers that he did not work in a concentration camp at all, but for a foreign espionage company. Corinth thought he was an ally ?? found someone who was also to blame in this war. He cannot accept that Schneiderhahn is not a war criminal and he gets into a fight with him and even beats him up.
Other characters
- Günther: Driver from Corinth in Dresden. He knows everything about the city and knows it like the back of his hand.
- Ludwig: Host who receives Corinth at his residence in Dresden. He also knows all kinds of things to tell about Dresden, and therefore also about Dresden’s past.
- Eugène: He resides in the same building at the same time as Corinth. He wants a lot of attention from Corinth, too much to just keep it friendly ??
Author
Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch was born on July 29, 1927 in Haarlem as the only son of Karl Victor Kurt Mulisch and Alice Schwarz. His father came from what was then Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic) but moved to the Netherlands after the First World War. His mother is Jewish, born in Antwperen. Although they speak German at home, he is raised with Dutch. His parents divorced in 1936 and his mother moved to Amsterdam and so Mulisch was brought up further by the housekeeper, Frieda Falk.
Because his mother is Jewish, he is half Jewish himself, but he can still be kept out of the concentration camps by his father.
In 1946 he wrote his first story, “My room”. This story reflects his writing style similar to that of Multatuli and Dostoevsky, which he often read in his youth.
Mulisch often writes dark stories with a lot of emotion. He feels very involved in the political and social events of the 1960s and therefore often writes about communism and the war.
War stories aren’t the only stories he writes. He also writes novels, plays, ?? Yet these works are connected with each other. His own experiences have a great influence on his stories and writing style. Death and war, as mentioned before, are often the subject of his works (The stone bridal bed fits in perfectly here).
The Greek myth also fascinates him. Many of his stories are therefore based on Greek theater. The playing time of ?? The stone bridal bed ?? is 48 hours, double the running time of a Greek theater play. There is a protagonist (Corinth) who is brought into contact with his fate by two antagonists (Hella and Schneiderhahn). There are therefore many references to Homer’s Iliad and the Trojan War.
The book
Writing style
Harry Mulisch ?? writing style and spelling have been preserved in this book, although this is sometimes confusing because it differs somewhat from the new spelling. So you have to read the book all the more carefully, which also makes you think more.
Theme
The central theme in this book is of course war, like so many books by Mulisch. It’s not about a war that’s underway but has raged years before. Psychology is also an important theme. Corinth clearly bears damage from this war, physically and mentally, and wants to fully delve into the past of this war. He also wants to know the past of everyone he meets there.
Structure
The book has 179 pages and is divided into 5 chapters. There are three chants ?? incorporated in the chapters. One can be found in chapters 2, 3 and four.
Choice title
Corinth goes to bed with Hella in the book and says: ?? every time is the first ??. Like a bridal bed where a virgin goes to bed with her husband for the first time. Corinth quickly ignores Hella, which is why the bridal bed turns to stone.
Storytelling perspective
Auctorial / staff narrative point of view. There are some passages that are written in the I person.