I told myself I am not reading, at the moment, any modern novel with its difficult style, convoluted plots and abstruse language which make my eyes redder than they already are. It has to be an old book written during those less sophisticated times when writers just write to tell stories and entertain. So I got this, written sometime the middle of the 17th century, originally in German, by a guy with a long name, Hans Jacob Christoph Von Grimmelshausen, a writer whose biography was said to be as shadowy and as elusive as that of Shakespeare, the work carrying an equally-long subtitle "Being the Description of the Life of a Strange Vagabond Named Melchior Sternfels Von Fuchshaim."Divided into short chapters I was into the third, amused by its antiquated tone (in English, but it must have been like that, too, in German), when I blinked. Then I blinked again. And again. I realized, that in a consistent monotone the narrator, then a boy of ten, is actually telling the story of how some bandit-like "troopers" had descended upon their household, ransacked the place, held captive his Dad, Mammy and sister Ursula, tortured their male hand, raped their maid, and took everything they can get.Some who reviewed this here at GR say the family members were massacred. But, spoiler alert, in the end you'll find out they were not. You'll find out too, spoiler alert, that the Dad and the Mammy were not really the boy's parents.The setting is supposed to be during the so-called Thirty Years War of which I know nothing about and too lazy to google what went on during these troubled part of history. But I am sure that it was about killings, with crude weapons like bows and arrows, catapults, spears and lances, axes and those stuffs you see in movies with knights and princesses on them. Anyway, reading this novel would give you the impression that the narrator lived in a world where pillaging towns, villages and kingdoms, soldiering or banditry are honorable professions and the best ways for young lads to advance in life.In any case, to get on with the story, the boy escaped and went deep into the forest. There he met a holy hermit who, spoiler alert, may have been his true father, but I am not telling. Not now, at least. Of course, the hermit later dies. For a while the boy lived there like a hermit himself, alone, contemplating in the wild the wise words and ways of the dearly departed saint.Now, at this point, the reader tries to predict how the story will go. Most readers would think: the boy will grow up handsome and strong, virtuous, a champion of the poor and the oppressed, and avenge, in the end, the wrong done to his family. Wrong! This boy, spoiler alert, will do all sorts of things and one of them would be to engage in banditry himself, killing for sport and money, waylaying innocent travelers and killing many of them. He'll become famous/notorious as the "Huntsman of Soest."(So recently I was watching a movie starring this stupid girl from Twilight now playing the role of Cinderella and paired with another handsome dude, not a vampire anymore, but a "Huntsman." I was telling myself, not original, you guys took this from Grimmelshausen, 17th century. )But back to the story, spoiler alert. Some reviewers say this novel portray the horrors of war. Hardly, in my opinion. The language of the narrator, insofar as violence is concerned, is much too sterilized and subdued to evoke any sense of horror upon the reader. The outstanding quality here, IMHO, is not in its portrayal of wars or conflicts, but the HUMOR in the principal protagonist's exploits. There are humor in how the boy came to be called Simplicissimus; on how he became rich, then poor, then rich again; how he was forced into marrying a maiden under the most ridiculous circumstances; how he--a brave warrior and a feared bandit--was cuckolded; how he became a widower, a treasure-finder, a vagabond; the lies and inventive strategems he resorted to to survive dangerous situations.Ah, even those which were not written, or had been omitted (in the edition that I read), can probably make you smile. Here, for instance, is Simplicissimus, during one of the stages in his life where he was at the top of the 17th century food chain, confessing in the third chapter:"...Nor will I deny that I gave myself up to the temptations of the Frenchwomen, that entertained me secretly and rewarded me with many gifts for my services, till in the end I was wearied of so vile and shameful a trade, and determined so to play the fool no longer."Thereupon follows this "NOTE"--"NOTE.--The fourth and fifth chapters of the original edition are devoted to a prolix and tedious account of an adventure--if adventure it may be called--of the kind hinted at in the last sentence of the third chapter. It is absolutely without connection with Simplicissimus's career as an actor in the war; has no interest as a picture of manners; and finally, can be read much better in Bandello, from whose much livelier story (vol. iv., novel 25, of the complete editions) it is copied. It is therefore omitted here."And here is the down-and-out Simplicissimus, with very little money, staying in a boarding house with a very stingy landlord--"The fellow (the landlord) had, as I have said, all manner of trades by which he scraped together money: he fed with his guests and not his guests with him, and he could have plentifully fed all his household with the money they brought him in, if the skinflint had so used it: but he fed us Swabian fashion and kept a mighty deal back. At the first I ate not with his guests but with his children and household, because I had little money with me: there were but little morsels, that were like Spanish fasting-food for my stomach, so long accustomed to the hearty Westphalian diet. No single good joint of meat did we ever get but only what had been carried away a week before from the students' table, pretty well hacked by them, and now, by reason of age, as grey as Methuselah. Over this the hostess (his wife), who must do the cooking herself (for he would pay for no maid to help her), poured a black, sour kind of gravy and bedevilled it with pepper. Yet though the bones were sucked so dry that one could have made chessmen of them, yet were they not yet done with, but were put into a vessel kept for the purpose, and when our miser had a sufficient quantity, they must be chopped up fine and all the fat that remained boiled out of them. I know not whether this was used for seasoning soup or greasing shoes. But on fast-days, of which there happened more than enough, and which were all religiously observed (for therein our host full of scruples), we had the run of our teeth on stinking herrings, salt cod, rotten stockfish, and other decayed marine creatures: for he bought all with regard to cheapness only, and grudged not the trouble to go himself to the fish-market and to pick up what the fishmongers themselves were about to throw away. Our bread was commonly black and stale, our drink a thin, sour beer which well nigh burst my belly, and yet must pass as fine old October. Besides all this, I learned from his German servant that in summer-time 'twas yet worse: for then the bread was mouldy, the meal full of maggots, and the best dishes were then a couple of radishes at dinner and a handful of salad at supper. So I asked him why did he stay with the old miser. He answered he was mostly travelling, and therefore must count more on the drink-money of travellers than on that mouldy old Jew, who he said would not even trust his wife and children with the cellar-key, for he grudge them even a drop of wine, and, in a word, was such a curmudgeon that his like would be hard to find; what I had seen up till now, said he, was nothing: if I did but stay there for a while I should perceive that he was not ashamed to skin a flea for its fat. Once, said he, the old fellow had brought home six pounds of tripe or chitterlings and put it in his larder: but to the great delight of his children the grating chanced to be open: so they tied a tablespoon to a stick and fished all the chitterlings out, which they then ate up half-cooked, in great haste, and gave out 'twas the cat had done it. That the old coal-counter would not believe, but caught the cat and weighed her, and found that, skin, hair and all, she weighed not so much as his chitterlings."Now as the fellow was so shameless a cheat, I desired no longer to eat at his private table but at that of the before-mentioned students, however much it might cost: and there 'twas certainly more royal fare; yet it availed me little, for all the dishes that were set before us were but half-cooked, which profited our host in two ways--first in fuel, which he thus saved, and secondly, because it spoiled our appetite: yea, methought he counted every mouthful we ate and scratched his head for vexation if ever we made a good meal. His wine, too, was well watered and not of a kind to aid digestion: and the cheese which was served at the end of every meal was hard as stone, and the Dutch butter so salty that none could eat more than half an ounce of it at breakfast; as for the fruit, it had to be carried to and fro till it was ripe and fit to eat; and if any of us grumbled thereat, he would begin a terrible abusing of his wife loud enough for us to hear: but secretly gave her orders to go on in the same old way."
This 17th century picaresque novel is the first person account of the adventures of Simplicius, a young man growing up amid the violent disruptions of the Thirty Years War. He begins as a country bumpkin, but in the course of his journey takes up many professions, roles, and disguises: apprentice hermit, stable boy, court fool, common soldier (on both sides of the conflict) guerrilla commander, freebooter, sneak thief, lover, husband, masquer, adulterer, female prostitute, merchant, world traveler, wealthy noble, and...back to hermit again.The author doesn't seem to be much concerned with character development. Although our hero tells us at the end of the narrative that he has become disillusioned with the world, we would have never inferred this from his actions or his tone, for he seems much the same as before, his disillusionment little more than another mask. The novel, however, makes up for its lack of character development through its precise, inventive narrative, crowded with incident and teeming with life.Perhaps the most impressive thing about this book is the way it can move abruptly from homespun humor to bloody battle raid, from fart jokes (of which there are many) to the torture of civilians, from rogues' tales of trickery to a mock scholastic lecture and then on to a genuine encounter with the occult. Some of this is just part of the picaresque design (or lack of it), but it also seems as if there is something about the arbitrary violence of war that not only encourages randomness but also deprives the person who is immersed in it of the ability to be either surprised or shocked. This book is uneven, and I never wished it longer. Many scenes, however (the war atrocities, the "school" for professional fools, the witches sabbath, and Simplicius' encounter with the mermen who live beneath a local lake) were vivid, memorable and amusing.If someone asked me where they could learn what it was like in war-torn Germany during 17th century, I would without hesitation send them to this book. And I don't even like fart jokes.
Do You like book Simplicissimus (2006)?
Vor diesem Buch, bzw. der Ausgabe dieses urspr. großartigen Werkes ist dringend abzuraten!In einer öffentlichen Besprechung zu diesem Buch heißt es zwar: "Reinhard Kaiser hat das Wagnis unternommen, dieses erste große Volksbuch der Deutschen wieder unters Volk zu bringen: in einer Sprache, die uns nahe ist. Ihm ist das Kunststück geglückt, Rhythmus, Ton und Geist des ursprünglichen Textes, seine Tiefe und seinen übersprudelnden Witz wieder lebendig werden zu lassen." Doch dem ist eben nicht so. Kaiser vollbrachte kein Kunststück, sondern verzapfte großen Mist. Durch sein "Wagnis" wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung nämlich vollkommen verschandelt; der Rhythmus, Ton und Geist dieses wunderbaren Erzählwerkes von Grimmelshausen ist hierdurch völlig verloren gegangen. Möchte jemand vielleicht demnächst auch noch den Schiller umschreiben, nur weil ein paar seiner Ausdrücke und Formulierungen nicht mehr zeitgemäß sind? Was ist nur aus dem EichbornVerlag geworden, daß man so etwas zuläßt? Also: lest bitte die Originalfassung und kauft bloß nicht diese Ausgabe.
—Jermain Foutre le Camp
The adventures of Simpleton, or Die abenteuerliche Simplicissimus, is seen as the first significant German novel. The story shows life as it was in the war between ‘Germany’ and Sweden. (Germany as such didn’t exist back in the day, think of it as the same construction we see in the USA nowadays, to keep things simple.)Without a doubt, this war is one of the worst that Germany was involved in and possibly one of the worst that has ever taken place. I’d say that for Germany certainly this war was a lot worse than either the First or Second World War. This book depicts life as it was back in that day: our Simplicus, or Simpleton, starts his life at a farm. He has no idea what the words “father” or “mother” mean, he calls them “Knan” and “Meuder” instead. Then one day the soldiers show up, the farm goes up in flames, everything is taken from the family all the women are raped: in short, ransacking to a degree as was very usual back then. A servant girl gets our Simpleton out, and he starts living with a religious man who lives his life on his own in the woods. He teaches the Simpleton about God, but when the man dies, the Simpleton is forced to leave the woods and make his own way in the world..The world as it is depicted in this book isn’t pretty. Being loyal to one side in the war doesn’t seem to happen often, the soldiers seem godless men without loyalty, ransacking seems to be the way to live. Our Simpleton was a very religious man at first, but loses his faith more and more as the book progresses: he too was a soldier and had to ransack to live. Eventually his conscious is reawakened, and this is interesting. From our Simpleton, you get three perspectives: that from before he understands what’s happening, and he doesn’t understand the horror that the soldiers partake in; the soldier perspective; and the mourning, the realisation of how godless he's acted and the wrong he has done.Men acting godless however was very normal. Stealing wasn’t allowed, but how else were you going to live? Raping women was technically not allowed, but after men have risked their lives for their lords in battle, why wouldn’t they allow them a little something? The book fully depicts the horrors of this war, which affected everyone. No one was safe. As you already see in the opening chapters: soldiers even sack farms, farms that are well out of the way and not at all easy to reach. Farms that do not seem to have a lot of money. One has to constantly fear for their lives, but also for their mortal souls (the church was still very big in those days, the excuse for this war was religion: Protestants vs. Catholics, both telling you to beware or you’ll burn in hell), their property and their health. Another one of those things that helped make this period of time one of the darkest in German history: the serious amount of diseases that happened to wander around Germany at the time, with the most deadly probably being the plague.All of this is shown in the book. No pretty language, no metaphors, just bam, this is it, this is life. No use making it sound prettier than it is, because life wasn’t pretty. In all of this misery the book shows a few things that were still valued, back in the day, such as friendship. The people didn’t have much, but they had something, and this does help in making this book seem more bearable.Now, people more familiar with the book may say, but what about the adventures? The adventures are nice! So I’ve heard, but I had to read an abridged version for the university, and I can only recommend you.. to not do that. The abridged version is very well done, the story is easy to follow and makes a lot of sense, the notes fill you in wherever they felt the need to cut in the text. But you miss the adventures, which is, most likely the nicer part of the story. Also a lot of the details about what life was like in those days were cut, as well as the personal histories of people other than our Simpleton, which I personally would have been very interested in. So, do not read the abridged version. The book is interesting and very readable, so get a good, complete version instead.I can only recommend this book to anyone interested in German history and culture. I found it to be very eye-opening: Germany has such a sorrowful past. The stories about this war are truly horrifying, maybe even more so than those of the well-documented World Wars. (Just look up the sacking of Magdeburg in 1631, which tells some of the most gruesome stories I’ve ever heard. That’s only the one example, but the best documented one we have.) The period in time however is very fascinating, gruesome but fascinating, and this book helps you to understand, as only the best books can.
—Sandra
Rereading this after many years is like encountering a massive rewrite. When I first struggled through it in German class, I knew the general facts of the Thirty Years War, but as usual, from the top--the various Kings, Battles, Generals, Princes and Prelates involved.Grimmelshausen gives us a peasant's eye view of the war. One can see how German culture was being shaped by this disastrous war stretching out over a couple of generations. Simplicius's story begins with his ignorant childhood in the forest, when soldiers come and rape his mother, sister, and the milkmaid, and kill his father, slaughter all their animals, and burn down their house. The milkmaid staggers out of the barn, all disheveled, and tells the boy to run. The story is bawdy, gross, funny, harrowing, inspiring, instructive, ruminative, and gross by turns. Always sharply insightful, it demonstrates human habits and views that we share today--and then it steps sideways and gives us a glimpse into manners and views that seem quite alien.We also get plenty of advice, like on how best to get lice out of your clothes (bake them) and the etiquette of male servants picking fleas off their boss's wife. We get a closer look at banquets of the so-called great, and life at all levels. Also, how armies were organized, trained, and run.Think of this book as a mini series running for a season--it was enormously popular for many, many years. If you don't read German, get a good translation and unabridged so you get the breezy style and the details.
—Sherwood Smith
