Marianne Fritz: The Weight of Things

“The man who makes light of what he's won is never able to defend it, and the man who doesn't know how to defend what he's won will lose far more than just his treasure!”


“This is the Distinguished Dr. Primarius Gottfried Trimm," Wilhelm whispered, looking imploringly, if not quite with outright horror, at his wife, who in general had little understanding of social hierarchies.

"Aha," Willhelmine said, adding: "He's a bit of a porker.”


“Was the longing still there and the burning silence?”


These were the words of this angel of angels, her baroque face beaming with those glorious feelings of triumph that sometimes fill people in the know when they have a chance to lord their secrets over their faintly hopeful, warily ignorant victims.