The Assistant by Robert Walser

Author:Robert Walser
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 978-0-8112-2269-3
Publisher: New Directions
Published: 1985-01-15T16:00:00+00:00

The Bärenswilers or Bärensweilers are a good-natured but at the same time somewhat treacherous race—they might best be described as slyboots or tricksters. They are all more or less shifty and crafty, and every last one of them—the one more, the other less—has something secretive or hidden about him, and for this reason they all tend to look a bit artful and wily. They are honest and moral and not without pride; for centuries they have enjoyed wholesome civil and political liberties. But they are wont to combine this honesty with worldly ways and a certain sense of cunning, and they like to give the impression of being sharp as tacks. They are all a little ashamed of their hearty, natural straightforwardness, and each one of them would rather be seen as a “scoundrelly dog” than as a blockhead and donkey who is easily duped. Duping a Bärenswiler is no easy matter—anyone who wishes to attempt such a feat should be strenuously forewarned. They are good-hearted when treated with respect, and have a good dose of honor in them, since for centuries they have enjoyed…etc. But they are ashamed of their own kindness, as they are of nearly every expression of sentiment. They laugh using their back teeth where other people and nations laugh only with their lips, they make conversation more with their pricked-up ears than with their unabashed mouths, they are lovers of silence, but sometimes they will set about boasting like proper sailors, as if all of them had been born with mouths destined for use in public houses. Later they will hold their tongues for four weeks without pause. In general, they know themselves quite well, they’re able to calculate where their strengths and where their failings lie, and they are always more likely to put their flaws on display than their positive qualities, so as not to let anyone know just how capable they are. This ruse proves much to their advantage in business affairs. In the surrounding region, they have a reputation for being uncouth devils, and this is not entirely without cause, but it is always only a few among them who are disagreeable boors, and thanks to these few exceptions the Bärenswilers have to put up with many an impudent and unjust epithet. They have a great deal of imagination, coupled with the desire to put it to use; those among them who are lacking in taste therefore tend to do more boasting than is right and proper, for which they are held in ill repute elsewhere in the land. But above all else, Herr Tobler, they are down-to-earth and sober, a race apparently made to conduct business in a modest but safe manner and reap profits accordingly. The homes they live in are as clean as they are, the streets they build are a bit bumpy, just like them, and the electric lanterns that light up the streets of their village at night are practical, once more just exactly like them. And this is the sort of people among whom Herr Tobler had to come to live.

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