Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Biography & Autobiography Personal Memoirs

A Nobel Affair

The Correspondence between Alfred Nobel and Sofie Hess

by (author) Erika Rummel

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
May 2017
Category
Personal Memoirs, History, Women, Jewish Studies, General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781487501778
    Publish Date
    May 2017
    List Price
    $108.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781487513931
    Publish Date
    Jun 2017
    List Price
    $92.00

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Alfred Nobel made his name as an inventor and successful entrepreneur and left a legacy as a philanthropist and promoter of learning and social progress.

 

The correspondence between Nobel and his Viennese mistress, Sofie Hess, shines a light on his private life and reveals a personality that differs significantly from his public image. The letters show him as a hypochondriac and workaholic and as a paranoid, jealous, and patriarchal lover. Indeed, the relationship between the aging Alfred Nobel and the carefree, spendthrift Sofie Hess will strike readers as dysfunctional and worthy of Freudian analysis. Erika Rummel’s masterful translation and annotations reveal the value of the letters as commentary on 19th century social mores: the concept of honour and reputation, the life of a "kept" woman, the prevalence of antisemitism, the importance of spas as health resorts and entertainment centres, the position of single mothers, and more generally the material culture of a rich bourgeois gentleman. A Nobel Affair is the first translation into English of the complete correspondence between Alfred Nobel and Sofie Hess.

About the author

Erika Rummel has taught at the University of Toronto and WLU, Waterloo. She has lived in big cities (Los Angeles, Vienna) and small villaes in Argentina, Romania, and Bulgaria. She has written extensively on social history, translated the correspondence of inventor Alfred Nobel, the humanist Erasmus, and the Reformer Wolfgang Capito. She is the author of a number of historical novels, most recently The Road to Gesualdo and The Inquisitor's Niece, which was judged best historical novel of the year by the Colorado Independent Publishers' Association. In 2018 the Renaissance Society of America honoured her with a lifetime achievement award. She divides her time between living in Toronto and Santa Monica, California. The Loneliness of the Time Traveller is her eighth novel.

Erika Rummel's profile page

Editorial Reviews

‘For history buffs, this book is well worth reading.’

Choice Magazine vol 55:03:2017

"Erika Rummel, an esteemed writer and historian, has translated and annotated the entire correspondence [between Sofie Hess and Alfred Nobel.] According to Rummel, the very fact the Nobel Foundation acquired the letters and kept them under lock and key for decades is an indication of their historical importance."

Haaretz, July 15, 2018