The Marquise of O—

A vivid new translation of a timeless classic: Kleist's tense, ambiguous novella about an unexpected pregnancy

In a Northern Italian town, a young widowed noblewoman of impeccable reputation publishes a peculiar announcement in a newspaper: she has found herself inexplicably pregnant, and would like the father of the child to make himself known so that she can marry him.

The Marquise of O— is the dizzyingly comic tale of how she came to this extremity. It is a story of layered ironies, of events misreported and passions at cross purposes. Nicholas Jacobs' fluid new translation captures the novella's restless pace and complexity, as each masterful twist of Kleist's prose plunges us deeper into the ambiguities of truth and human desire.

Heinrich von Kleist was born in 1777 into a Prussian military family in Frankfurt an der Oder. He entered the army at a young age, serving in a Guards regiment under the Duke of Brunswick. He later studied law and philosophy in his hometown before doing clerical work for the Ministry of Finance in Berlin. Kleist wrote poetry, philosophical essays, plays, short stories and novellas, most famously Michael Kohlhaas and The Marquise of O—.