The novel tells the story of how a German man, Leo, returns to his homeland after several years in South America, only to find that Ulrich, his beloved childhood friend, has married a woman with whom Leo has a dark past.
The 19th-century English novelist George Gissing read the novel in the original German edition in 1895, writing in his diary "it is the work of a playwright, and, as such, strong.
[1] William Lyon Phelps wrote about The Undying Past in his 1918 book Essays on Modern Novelists: The most beautiful and impressive thing in Es War is the friendship between the two men—so different in temperament and so passionately devoted to each other.
One can never forget the gluttonous, wine-bibbling Parson, who comes eating and drinking, but who is a terror to publicans and sinners.
The film was directed by Clarence Brown and starred Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lars Hanson and Barbara Kent.