Gold and Myrrh

Ten short stories of rural and village life, and of the trials and tribulations of school teachers.

"For Christ, the gift had an especially apt significance, because he was not only a man, but also a teacher of men. And so really gold and myrrh also always lay close next to one another in his life. Here the flaming gold of his shining love, there the myrrh of indifference; here a shimmering seed of thankfully returned love, there the bitter herbs of misjudgement, and ever and ever success and failure, and ever and ever gold and myrrh."

Paul Keller (1873-1932) was a primary school teacher and very popular German writer, some of whose novels were made into films. He is best known for imbuing his works with a love of nature and Heimat, and for his, albeit conservative and moralistic, concern for the common people. He belongs amongst the most read German authors from the start of the 20th Century.