In Böll’s long and highly productive career,
Gruppenbild mit Dame[Group Portrait with Lady, 1971] stands out as his most ambitious novel and, as many critics believe, his magnum opus, which secured him the Nobel Prize in Literature one year later. It is Böll’s first novel to center on a female character, Leni Pfeiffer. In an interview, Böll mentioned that for some time he had wanted to write about the fate of a German woman of his own age who is burdened by and carries the whole weight of German history from 1922 to 1970 [Böll, Victor and Renate Matthaei (eds.),
Querschnitte: Aus Interview, Aufsätzen und Reden von Heinrich Böll(Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1977), 122]. As some of his earlier works are also set in this period,
Gruppenbild mit Dameprovides him with an…
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Citation: Mundt, Hannelore G.. "Gruppenbild mit Dame". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 January 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16217, accessed 31 October 2024.]
