Der Trinker: Roman

A young man named John, raised in a coarse merchant family, descends into chronic alcoholism that inflates and weakens his body while fueling destructive impulses. The narrative follows his childhood thirst and escalating self-harm, family responses that mix indulgence, fear and fantasy, and the enabling presence of servants and tavern companions. Repeated stays in treatment fail to curb his habit, and his wasted strength and imagination repeatedly turn to violence and ruin. The work examines addiction’s corrosion of potential, familial denial, and the interplay between unchanneled vitality and self-destruction.