Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Commentary on the work
Louise Rinser Chronology

“Everything is so scary and complicated and confusing.
“I hate people who try to make everything simple.”

Luise Rinser's masterpiece, "In the Middle of Life," published in 1950, is called the "Nina novel" along with "Moral Adventures" (1957), published later.
This novel, which depicts the protagonist Nina Buschmann's journey of self-discovery as a woman in German society after World War II, contains autobiographical elements of the author.

Nina is an intelligent and independent woman who challenges society's expectations of traditional women and seeks her own path in life.
Through her relationships with several men, she delves into the meaning of love, desire, freedom, and responsibility, but she remains self-centered and reliant on others.

The novel centers on the unrequited love story of Stein, a man twenty years older than Nina who loves her.
The author's understanding and deep insight into life are revealed through Stein's diary and letters, brief encounters and conversations between Nina and her sister Margret over a few days, and the contrast between the characters' different approaches to life.


Through Nina, a woman who loved perfectly until every moment of her life and walked her own path with a strong will for freedom, and through Stein, who loved even her stubbornness, Nina, who never tolerated deception or compromise, shows complete positivity and focus on life.
Nina Buschmann, a unique and charming character created by Linzer, captivated young people around the world and created the so-called 'Nina Syndrome'.


I threw it away because I truly loved it
The adventure and freedom of those who can be liberated,
A life of passion that never compromises

The masterpiece "In the Middle of Life," which sold over a million copies in Germany and was translated into over 20 countries, attracted great interest and attention when it was published in Korea in 1961 through the translation by Jeon Hye-rin, who was highly praised as a "once-in-a-century genius."
In 1967, it was republished by Munye Publishing Company, and in a new edition as part of the Munye World Literature Series, “In the Middle of Life” was carefully reviewed and meticulously revised to ensure accuracy and readability while respecting the translator’s intentions and writing style.

In the 'Work Commentary', the translator focuses on the novel's unique and three-dimensional protagonist, 'Nina', as well as various other characters.
Nina is a woman, but she is a novelist with a masculine reputation and a figure richly adorned with feminine charm.
The translator commented that through Nina, Linzer was testing how well a woman belonging to the intellectual class of the time she lived in could maintain her consciousness amidst the conflicts and strife surrounding her.
As the translator points out, this author's intention is clearly revealed in Nina's sincerity toward her work even in the midst of pain and despair, and in her attitude of self-imposed suffering due to her extreme fear of compromise or self-deception in interpersonal relationships.


Nina's sincerity is also revealed in her love life, where she only allows fleeting 'encounters' with numerous men.
Translator Jeon Hye-rin analyzed in her essay “And Then She Said Nothing” that “for Nina, who devotes all her passion and intellect to the task of creating another typical and transcendent self on a white piece of paper, men are like shadows that pass by.”


Meanwhile, Stein, a contrasting figure to Nina, represents loyalty.
Stein repeatedly pursues and sustains the fleeting fascination of soul-to-soul collision, thereby realizing lifelong fidelity.
The counterpart to Stein, the 'incarnation of complete self-consciousness', is Nina's first husband, Hal.
He is a possessive and sensual young man with a healthy body and mind, blond hair, and no complexity or depth of soul, the 'incarnation of immediate existence' for whom love is impossible but marriage is always possible.

In addition, the novel presents a holistic view of Rinser's beliefs about God, death, humanity, the world, love, marriage, art, and above all, life, through the conflicts between various characters and the differences of opinion between Nina and her older sister Margret.


Germany's greatest prose writer of the post-war period
To Louise Linzer
A masterpiece that brought world-class fame

Gabriel Marcel, the philosopher and critic who wrote Existence and Objectivity (1925), which is recognized as the first existentialist text of the 20th century, praised Luise Rinser as “the most outstanding modern writer.”
Luise Rinser, a writer who is considered one of the two great figures of modern women's literature along with Simone de Beauvoir, majored in education and psychology at the University of Munich and worked as an elementary school teacher when she was asked to join the Nazis, but she refused and quit her job.


After embarking on the path of becoming a writer, she published her first work and debut novel, “The Glass Ring” (or “The Disruption”), in 1940.
Hermann Hesse, who was bedridden at the time, read this work and personally sent it a letter of praise, which was so enthusiastic that its publication was banned because it opposed the Hitler regime, and the author was arrested and imprisoned, but was released the following year after the war.
His experiences at this time and his sharp criticism of the Nazis were reflected in his later works, such as the novel "Prisoner's Diary" and the short story "Jan Lobel from Warsaw."
German playwright Karl Zuckmayr called Jan Lovell from Warsaw “the finest prose in postwar Germany.”


"In the Middle of Life" brought Linzer worldwide fame and great success, and was particularly praised for its formal novelty.
In her work, Linzer creates a new form by mixing various forms such as dialogue, memoirs, diaries, letters, recollections, and the protagonist Nina's creations, and attempts a conscious yet technical stylistic composition.


Through the protagonist Nina, a reflection of the author herself, Linzer successfully portrays a typical example of a woman pursuing a true life even in the bleak and desperate circumstances of post-war Germany.
Through this work, Rinser breathed new life into the German literary world, which had been stagnant since World War II, and this work, which depicts a fascinating human being who constantly pursues and searches for the meaning of life, is still loved by young people around the world.