L'Arrabbiata

Paul Heyse · 1830–1914 · Germany

Originally L'Arrabbiata (German)

Why it matters

On a boat between Sorrento and Capri, a fierce fisher-girl nicknamed 'the angry one' refuses the love she most wants. The German novella at its most perfect: a single incandescent image carrying the whole form, exactly as Heyse's falcon theory prescribed.

At a glance

A brief, limpid novella readable in a sitting.