Runaway Horse ends as it began: in answer to Sabina's question "What really happened …?", Helmut starts to tell the tale we have just read. It is told very cleverly, a far richer, subtler, wittier story than any brief synopsis can hope to show. Its appeal derives not only from Walser's singular ability to state and suggest what people think and feel, not only from the memorably elusive character of "HH" and his particular predicament suddenly one summer, but also from the sadness it engenders. To be afforded "no enlightenment" makes a nice change; to be left to reflect on why the Halms and the Buchs have become who they are, and on what lies ahead of them, makes for melancholy—unless you can disown them altogether.

G. P. Butler, "The Secrets of H H," in The Times Literary Supplement (© Times Newspapers Ltd. (London) 1980; reproduced from The Times Literary...