Ambiguity as Narrative Strategy in the Prose Work of C.F. Meyer

This study of the prose work of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825-1898) focuses on the central role played by ambiguity. This narrative element is traced in both the fragments, rarely discussed in critical literature, and in the novellas. While situating Meyer’s work in the context of the nineteenth century, this examination of narrative strategy provides an avenue of approach fruitful for both the non-specialist and the Meyer-scholar, revealing the unusual breadth of Meyer’s prose.