“El Desdichado” doesn’t quite work through melancholy but gives form and refuge to it.

Excerpt from Jean Paul Richter’s 1797 novel Flower-, Fruit-, and Thorn-Pieces introduced by Brandon Bien.

“We hear the intuitive Bloom, the open and receptive reader, the brooder and fabulous conversation partner, talking and chuckling, searching and scowling; we see him rubbing his brow and thinking aloud…”