Thomas Mann: The Holy Sinner

Penguin 1969. Translation of Der Erwaehlte (how do you type a-umlaut?) Ah!, ä (ampersand-a-uml-semicolon). Make that Erwählte.
1951.
Fantastic book. Based on a Middle-High-German epic, Gregorius vom Stein, by Hartmann von Aue, and retailing an awful catalogue of disasters, culminating in dreadfully-compounded incest. Beautifully composed and cadenced, and culminating in unhoped-for redemption.
On the sin: "...her soul for horror had swounded, but only play-acting-wise, for on top the soul pretends and makes to-do about the diabolical deception practiced on it, but underneath, where truth abides in quietness..."
On divine mercy: "Great and extreme, woman, is your sin,... You are expecting that I shall raise my hands and curse you. Has never anyone told you, who had studied God, that he accepts true repentance for all sins and that a human being, be his soul never so sick - if his eye only for an hour grows wet with rue, then he is saved?"