Earrings: A Novel Set in Baden-Baden, 1883

Susan Merskey is freelance writer in London, Ontario.

In the late 19th century, Baden-Baden was the summer capital of Europe.
Each year, its population increased by 60,000 guests, who came to enjoy
the natural beauty of the town, the social scene, the baths, and the
many cultural delights. It was the place for amusement and intrigue,
where fantasy intersected with reality and reputations were made and
lost.

In 1883, jeweler Robert Koch (no relation to the bacteriologist Robert
Koch) comes to Baden-Baden to establish a business. A local jeweler,
Katzau, enlists his help in finding a pair of ruby earrings, said to
have been worn by the Empress Josephine at her coronation, and now
stolen from Marie, Duchess of Hamilton. Numerous postulations, each more
fantastic than the last, emerge about who might have stolen them and
where they might be now, but in the end, all is well.

It is often hard to distinguish between fact and fiction in this tale,
but this does not really matter. Many of the most intriguing figures of
the 19th century flit in and out, including Napoleon and the Empress
Josephine, the Duchess of Hamilton, Edward VII of England, Kaspar
Hauser, Pauline Viardot, Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Friedrich
Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Ivan Sergeyevich
Turgenev. However, it is unclear whether the short story
“Josephine’s Rubies” is really a hitherto unpublished work by
Dostoevsky, or a creation of Eric Koch.

The author displays both a good knowledge of the nobility of various
European countries, and a good deal of accurate insight into the social
conditions and attitudes of the day. For instance, both Katzau and Koch
are Jewish, but very assimilated, as so many Jews of that period were.

Although somewhat marred by a number of misspellings and omitted words,
the book is both a fascinating and an entertaining read—and the
original ruby earrings are returned to their rightful owner in the end.
If you like detective stories with a difference, you will enjoy this.