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From there on, the cavalry unit rides on for five more days until they get to a river where they see a bridge made of pure gold. Most of the soldiers cross the bridge but Bagge refuses, finally convincing himself that this could not be real. Then he awakes. He is still at the first bridge, where the
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At an official reception in Vienna, there is a dispute between Baron Bagge and a young man, Farago, who forbids Bagge to speak with his sister. Bagge, Farago claims, was responsible for the suicides of two women. Bagge challenges him to a duel, but the situation can be cleared and Farago agrees to
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After the war, he travels back and finds the land looking strangely similar to his dream. There was even a real
Charlotte in Nagy-Mihaly, but she died during the war. All those he saw in his dream were already dead, including Semler and his fellow soldiers. He even encounters the bridge from his
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Semler, orders an attack on a bridge held by
Imperial Russian Army. Even though cavalry normally wouldn't stand a chance against machine-guns, the charge miraculously succeeds with minimal casualties. Bagge is only hit by a small rock that is swirled up during the attack. Afterwards, the
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attack was catastrophic and he has actually been hit by a bullet, not just a small rock. He is transported to a field hospital and slowly recovers. He realises that the peaceful land, the town of Nagy-Mihaly and his marriage to
Charlotte occurred only in a dream.
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apologize. Bagge finds he has to explain himself and tells his story. Both women did indeed kill themselves, because he would marry neither of them. This was, Bagge says, because he was actually already married.
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reconnaissance unit advances further into what nominally must be enemy-held territory, but finds only peace and a welcoming civilian population. At the
Ukrainian town of Nagy-Mihaly (nowadays called
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dream, which is not made of gold but a simple wooden bridge. Bagge however, still does not dare to cross the bridge. He interprets his experiences through
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described the setting as "a world not quite real, unfamiliar yet believable" and complimented the "mesmerizing storytelling".
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He was a cavalry officer back in 1915 and found himself with his unit on a reconnaissance mission in the buildup to the
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Phantom
Empires: The Novels of Alexander Lernet-Holenia and the Question of Postimperial Austrian Identity
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that turns more and more unreal as he encounters love, death and war. The first
English translation by
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Some of the text in this article may be based closely on the articles in the French
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Gabriel Garcia
Marquez in Wien und andere Kulturgeschichten aus Lateinamerika
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in
Eastern Europe. His mentally unstable commanding officer,
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The book was lauded by, among others, the
Argentine writer
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The Shelf. From LEQ to LES. Adventures in
Extreme Reading
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has a narrative structure similar to the Civil War story
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126:, originally published in German in 1936 by
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16:1936 novella by Alexander Lernet-Holenia
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122:) is a novella by the Austrian author
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472:Austrian speculative fiction novels
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477:Fiction with unreliable narrators
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462:1936 speculative fiction novels
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507:Novels set during World War I
482:Novels set in Austria-Hungary
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383:The Count of Saint Germain
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140:Richard and Clara Winston
99:Published in English
58:Richard and Clara Winston
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328:Alexander Lernet-Holenia
258:. Lit Verlag, Wien 2010
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124:Alexander Lernet-Holenia
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142:was published in 1956.
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343:I Was Jack Mortimer
44:Original title
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426:On Resonant Shores
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375:Twentieth of July
264:978-3-643-50141-7
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128:S. Fischer Verlag
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242:References
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434:Espionage
183:Reception
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266:, p. 138
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93:Austria
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