 Frontispiece of the first edition | |
| Author | Samuel Greifnsohn vom Hirschfelt or German Schleifheim von Sulsfort,[a] reallyH. J. C. von Grimmelshausen |
|---|---|
| Original title | Der abentheuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch |
| Language | German |
| Series | Simplician scriptures |
| Genre | Picaresque novel |
| Set in | 1618 to 1648Thirty Years' War inHoly Roman Empire |
| Publisher | Johann Fillion,[a] really Wolff Eberhard Felßecker |
Publication date | 1668,[a] really 1669 |
| Publication place | Holy Roman Empire |
Simplicius Simplicissimus (German:Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch) is apicaresque novel of the lowerBaroque style, written in five books by German authorHans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen published in 1668, with the sequelContinuatio appearing in 1669. Inspired by the events and horrors of theThirty Years' War which devastated Germany from 1618 to 1648, it is regarded as the firstadventure novel in the German language and the first German novel masterpiece.
The full subtitle is "The account of the life of an odd vagrant named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim: namely where and in what manner he came into this world, what he saw, learned, experienced, and endured therein; also why he again left it of his own free will."
The workSimplicius Simplicissimus consists of five books nominally published 1668, with a sequelContinuatio appearing in 1669. Each book is in turn divided into chapters.[1][2][a] TheContinuatio is considered the sixth book of the same cycle by scholars, though Grimmelshausen altogether produced ten titles which he claimed belong to the same set.[2]
The English translation by Alfred Thomas Scrope Goodrick (1912)[3] included the five books and selected chapters from the continuation.[4] The full translation by Monte Adair (1986–2012) includes the continuation as Book Six.[5]
Simplicius Simplicissimus was published as the work of Samuel Greifnsohn vom Hirschfelt (Hirschfeld), with German Schleifheim von Sulsfort as its supposed author, but these have been deduced to beanagrammatical pseudonyms[b] of the real author, Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, whose name is only disclosed in initials "H.I.C.V.G." in an advertisement (or ratherBeschluss, "postscript" to theContinuatio) near the end of the published work.[6][4]
The first edition pretends to have been printed at Mompelgart (Mömpelgart, present-dayMontbéliard, France) by "Johann Fillion", but in fact they were printed inNürnberg by Wolff Eberhard Felßecker, and though the colophon gave 1669 as the date, the publication already appeared in 1668.[7]
The novel is told from the perspective of its protagonist Simplicius, a rogue orpicaro typical of thepicaresque novel, as he traverses the tumultuous world of theHoly Roman Empire during theThirty Years' War. Raised by a peasant family, he is separated from his home by foraging dragoons and is adopted by a hermit living in the forest, who teaches him to read and introduces him to religion. The hermit also gives Simplicius his name because he was so simple that he did not know what his own name was.[8] After the death of the hermit, Simplicius must fend for himself. He is conscripted at a young age into service, and from there embarks on years of foraging, military triumph, wealth, prostitution, disease, bourgeois domestic life, and travels to Russia, France, and to an alternate world inhabited bymermen. The novel ends with Simplicius turning to a life of hermitage himself, denouncing the world as corrupt.
Much has been written on the frontispiece copperplate drawing (fig. top right) depicted an enigmatic winged monster holding an illustrated book.[9][11]
It has been described as a composite creature (achimera) with the features of a goat, fish, bird, human,[12] though "Satyr-head" (Satyrkopf, rather than goat/human) on a Chimera body,[13] may be more apt, since the satyr is a wordplay of the "satirical" nature of the work,[14] though the label "chimera",[15] has been criticized as strictly incorrect, as it does not match the classical (Homeric) chimera of the lion-goat-serpent variety.[9]
The creature is arguably identifiable as the "phoenix copper" (German:Phönix-Kupfer), an embodiment of "the purpose of the book".[12] There is an accompanying poem about the phoenix copper written in couplets[16] which should provide some clue as to its meaning.[12] The author of a monograph on the subject shuns the identification with the phoenix,[19]
The creature has also been interpreted as representing the true author himself (or his narrative work), with the book and the sword serving as mundane objects straightforwardly defining his identity, while the additional parts such as the wings (alluding to air) and the fins and fishtail (water) are allusive hints. This man has enacted many roles (indicated by the masks scattered on the floor), but presently is donning the mask of the "satirical actor" in order to perform the task of explaining the world to his audience while pointing-gesturing his book. The creature exists as a whole though made up of odd disparate parts, hence the title copperplate etching is an emblem that serves to preserve the "unity of the narrative about the I(ego)".[20]
The notion that the frontispiece portrays shapeshiftingBaldanders maintained by writerJorge Luis Borges,[21] is also refuted.[9]
The novel is considered by some to contain autobiographic elements, inspired by Grimmelshausen's experience in the war.[22] It has been reported that as a child Grimmelshausen was kidnapped by Hessian and Croatian troops where he eventually served as a musketeer.[23] The historian Robert Ergang, however, draws upon Gustav Könnecke'sQuellen und Forschungen zur Lebensgeschichte Grimmelshausens to assert that "the events related in the novelSimplicissimus could hardly have been autobiographical since [Grimmelshausen] lived a peaceful existence in quiet towns and villages on the fringe of theBlack Forest and that the material he incorporated in his work was not taken from actual experience, but was either borrowed from the past, collected from hearsay, or created by a vivid imagination."[24]
The adventures of Simplicissimus became so popular that they were reproduced by authors in other European countries.Simplicissimus was recreated in French, English, and Turkish. A HungarianSimplicissimus (Ungarischer oder Dacianischer Simplicissimus) was published in 1683.[25][26] The author remained anonymous but is now generally considered to beBreslau-bornDaniel Speer.[25][27]
Johann Strauss II composedan operetta based on the novel.
20th-century composerKarl Amadeus Hartmann wrote the anti-war operaSimplicius Simplicissimus forchamber orchestra in the mid-1930s, with contributions to thelibretto by his teacherHermann Scherchen.[28] It opens:
In A.D. 1618, 12 million lived in Germany. Then came the great war. ... In A.D. 1648 only 4 million still lived in Germany.
It was first performed in 1948; Hartmann scored it for full orchestra in 1956. The chamber version (properlyDes Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend) was revived by theStuttgart State Opera in 2004.[29]
Des Christoffel von Grimmelshausen abenteuerlicher Simplizissimus [de], a historically dramatised TV series based on the book was produced byZDF in 1975.[30]
The story was adapted into a newspaper comic strip by Raymond Lavigne and Gilbert Bloch in 1954.[31]
The Hunter of Soest (German:Der Jäger von Soest) is one of the aliases Simplicius uses in the novel. The city ofSoest developed this into the local mascotDas Jägerken von Soest [de] (the little hunter of Soest) in 1976. Every year a citizen is selected, who then gets to represent the town and charitable projects of his choice in costume.[32]
TheSimplicissimus-Haus [de] is a museum in the town of Renchen. It opened in 1998 and focuses on the reception of Grimmelshausen's works inmodern art.
Right in front of it stands a 1977 bronze statue byGiacomo Manzù, showing Simplicius in hisHunter of Soest character.[33]
Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus is used throughout John le Carré's novelA Perfect Spy (1986) as Magnus Pym's permanent key for one-time pad coding. More importantly, Pym's own life is represented as a picaresque: a boy dragged along in his father's career of frauds, and a man in the British intelligence service, making up lies and exaggerations about his life.
Grimmelshausen was used in other Le Carré novels as well. Le Carré was a medieval German scholar (as was his character George Smiley).Smiley sold a prized Grimmelshausen first edition at the beginning ofTinker Tailor Soldier Spy (in a fit of pique, because Ann had spent most of his pension check on an excursion with her latest lover). Actually, Smiley did not sell it, though such was his intention. He left it at Martindale's club, where it remained "still uncollected", as Le Carré writes at the very end of the novel.
Gunter Grass uses Grimmelshausen as a character in his bookThe meeting at Telgte.
English translations include:
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)The German text is publicly available through Project Gutenberg:Simplicius Simplicissimus.
PDFs of the original German-language edition, bearing the date 1669 but probably published already in 1668,[7] may be downloaded fromthe Badische Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe and fromthe Herzog-August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel.
Der angegebene Druckort »Monpelgart« (die damals noch württembergische Stadt Mömpelgart, Montbeliard am Doubs) ist eine Fiktion, ein beliebter fiktiver Druikort für satirische Literatur. Tatsächlich ist das Werk in Nürnberg erschienen, auch nicht bei „Johann Fillion", sondern bei Wolff Eberhard Felßecker, und das Erscheinungsjahr 1669 ist eine Vorausdatierung; der Roman erschien bereits 1668.
Bibliography
Media related toDer abenteuerliche Simplicissimus at Wikimedia Commons