 Three novels are depicting the period between the two World Wars. The first novella   Musicians  is shot against the tragic background of war: the return of the wounded and the funerals of the dead. The instruction of young musicians begins with funeral marches. The main character in second and third novellas is a repulsive army officer. The second novella  Painleve  is a story about the  tragic  death of the favorite cock of a wart major. He compensates his inability to love another human being with the maniacal devotion to a rooster. His solicitude for the cock and its ceremonious burial stand in sharp contrast to his brutality to the starving people whom he humiliates at all times. The special care for the animal contrasts sharply with his apathy toward wounded soldiers. Even though the officer makes a career in the army, he remains an embittered recluse. The third novella  Paying A Visit  reveals with merciless sarcasm the fate of the officer from the second novella whom we now see as a reserve colonel after the WWII. The petty-mindedness and the rancor of the former officer are contrasted to the morality of his young contemporaries.