The four works gathered here, among Eduard von Keyserling’s most representative, all share the same setting: the region of Courland, populated in these pages by the German aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, a group with impeccable Prussian manners who live in a world of lavish mansions, carefully tended gardens, verdant forests, and beautiful beaches. In Harmony, Felix von Bassenow’s homecoming, during which he reunites with his extravagant and sickly wife, is complicated by his relationship with the young Mila. In Sweltering Days, young Bill spends the summer with his father at the family estate, where he discovers that the cultured and restrained behavior of the adults conceals surprising relationships. The protagonist of Nicky, married to a baron, is swept away in a passionate romance with the pianist Enrico Fantoni, an affair truncated by the outbreak of war. The country holidays of Paul, a young boy, are interrupted by the start of the war in the story In a Quiet Corner. His placid surroundings are transformed into a tense and tearful scene in which Paul ultimately proves himself a hero.
