The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen - ISBN: 9780241309865
Paperback
War’s brutal absurdity: a boy’s wild journey through devastation and rediscovery.

The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus

$25.20

  • Paperback

    496 pages

  • Release Date

    1 March 2018

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Summary

The first great German novel - an extraordinary recreation of the horrors of the Thirty Years War, written by a veteran of the conflict.

First published in 1668, Simplicissimus tells the picaresque, brilliantly described adventures of a boy swept up in the Thirty Years War and the terrible things that he experiences. Some of it is realistic, some fantastical, but the overall effect is an unmatched picture of Europe torn apart by an endless, sadistic, futile war from which nob…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780241309865
ISBN-10:0241309867
Author:Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, J.A. Underwood
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:Penguin Classics
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:496
Release Date:1 March 2018
Weight:348g
Dimensions:28mm x 227mm x 129mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Simplicissimus not only satirizes the world’s folly but offers a Christian view of the vanity of this transitory existence. For this purpose, Grimmelshausen sense Simplicius off on a series of picaresque adventures. … And he has done so in a lively, colloquial, folksy style that is a major and original achievement, and a test for the translator. J. A. Underwood certainly passes this test. He has gone all out for a vivid, slangy, contemporary style, and his version is tremendous fun to read, as well as accurate. – Ritchie Robertson * TLS *

About The Author

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621-67) was born during the Thirty Years War and grew up to fight in it. It is impossible to disentangle how much of Simplicius Simplicissimus was based on his own experience and how much was fabricated.

J. A. Underwood is a distinguished translator of German and French. He has translated, among others, Freud, Canetti, Kafka, Benjamin, Gombrowicz, Bachelard and Robbe-Grillet.

Kevin Cramer is the author of The Thirty Years War and German Memory in the 19th Century. He teaches at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

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