Fetzen: Aus Der Abenteuerlichen Chronika Eines Überflüssigen

A novel written in the early 20th century. It’s a satirical, aphorism-laced chronicle of a young man’s coming‑of‑age, framed as an editor publishing the left-behind diary of a friend. The protagonist Jappes moves from rough rural childhood into the university and a temptations-filled city, crossing paths with a worldly neighbor and a vulnerable girl he helps at a pawnshop. The tone blends irreverent humor with sharp social critique of academia, morality, and desire. The opening of the book sets a mischievous editorial frame: the narrator receives his dead friend’s chaotic manuscript (and a live toad) and resolves to publish the student chronicle. We then meet Jappes—beaten into toughness by school and a pious mother—who enters university, prowls the city, and writes witty, self-mocking diary notes. He rents a shabby room from the Wertheims, roams lecture halls, and, short of money, pawns a chess set before giving the proceeds to a girl buying a funeral wreath for her mother. Two key relationships emerge: Reinette (Amourette), a coquettish neighbor who lures and bickers with him, and Pepy, the grateful pawnshop girl who later confides she is illegitimate and draws from Jappes cynical musings on marriage, fathers, and the “soul.” Interludes skewer a pompous host and a parade of professors, while the city teems with student types and sexual bravado. The section closes with Jappes taking Pepy to Lohengrin—torn between genuine feeling and abrasive irony—then needling her in a café with his mocking talk of love and marriage.