The Marquise of O

The Marquise of O, novella by German writer Heinrich von Kleist, published in 1808 in the literary journal Phöbus (which he coedited) as Die Marquise von O. It was collected in Erzählungen (1810–11; “Stories”).

Like much of Kleist’s fiction, this work is suffused with ambiguity, irony, paradox, and impulsive, erotic passion. The title character, Julietta, is a celibate young widow with two children who finds herself inexplicably pregnant. In desperation, she makes an appeal in a newspaper advertisement for the father of her unborn child to come forward; she promises to marry the man who acknowledges paternity. She is horrified when the man who responds to her advertisement is Count F., an officer in the Russian army who had saved her from being raped by Russian soldiers. After her rescue from this ordeal, Julietta had fainted; Count F. now confesses that he raped her while she was unconscious. Julietta marries him but refuses to have anything to do with him. After the child is born, Julietta relinquishes her previous ideal of perfection and forgives the count, accepting his genuine contrition, repentance, and love for her.