The "Lenz" referred to by Livvie is the main character of an unfinished novella by the German writer Georg Buchner (1813-1837), whose literary output consisted of only four works prior to his death from typhus aged 23. "Lenz", allegedly written in 1836, was inspired by an episode in the life of the playwright and poet Jakob Lenz (1751-1792), a member of the proto-Romantic Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) school of German writers. It centres on his attempts in early 1778 to find a cure to his mental illness with the help of the Protestant pastor and social reformer, Jean-Frederic Oberlin, in a small village of the Vosges mountains. Lenz was himself the son of a Pietist Protestant minister. The cure was unsuccessful and Lenz spent the remaining years of his life as an impoverished drifter.

Born into an ethnic German family in Sesswegen in the former Livonia, now Cesvaine, Latvia, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz went on to become a literary innovator much admired by his fellow Sturm und Drang artists, but largely ignored during his lifetime. After a life marked by bouts of mental illness and a chronic inability to find steady employment, he was found dead in a Moscow street aged only 41. His was the ultimate short life of the failed artist that was once held me in such thrall, but which today as the Christian I am I find more saddening than fascinating. I never did get round to reading "Lenz". Sorry, Livvie...

I went and talked to Livvie. I said to her: "You're one of the nicest girls I've ever known". "Oh, you say nice things to everyone - I'm sorry; I'm just possessive. I'm frightened of my feelings." "I love being nice, It really makes me happy. Sometimes, on the other hand, I feel as if I'm just putting One foot in front of the other". "You should read "Lenz". I'm sure you'd identify With the main character." When will somebody get me: There (the solar plexus)? As Livvie said... there (the solar plexus)?

You Should Read Lenz