Struwwelpeter
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Der Struwwelpeter (1845) is a popular German children's book by Heinrich Hoffmann. It comprises ten illustrated stories, mostly about children, each with a clear moral that demonstrates the disastrous consequences of misbehavior.
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[edit] Stories
- "Struwwelpeter" (Slovenly Peter) describes a boy who does not groom himself properly and is consequently unpopular.
- In "Die Geschichte vom bösen Friederich" (The Story of Cruel Frederick), a violent boy terrorizes animals and people. Eventually he is bitten by a dog, who goes on to eat the boy's sausages while he is bedridden.
- In "Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug" (The Dreadful Story of Pauline and the Matches), a girl plays with matches and burns to death.
- In "Die Geschichte von den schwarzen Buben" (The Story of the Inky Boys), St. Nikolas catches three boys teasing a dark-skinned boy. To teach them a lesson, he dips the three boys in black ink, to make them even darker-skinned than the boy they'd teased.
- "Die Geschichte von dem wilden Jäger" (The Story of the Wild Huntsman) is the only story not primarily focused on children. In it, a rabbit steals a hunter's rifle and eyeglasses and begins to hunt the hunter. In the ensuing chaos the rabbit's child is burned by hot coffee.
- In "Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher" (The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb), a mother warns her son not to suck his thumbs. However, when she goes out of the house he resumes his thumb sucking, until a roving tailor appears and cuts off his thumbs with giant scissors.
- "Die Geschichte vom Suppen-Kaspar" (The Story of Augustus who did not have any Soup) begins as Kaspar, a healthy, strong boy, proclaims that he will no longer eat his soup. Over the next five days he wastes away and dies.
- In "Die Geschichte vom Zappel-Philipp" (The Story of Fidgety Philip), a boy who won't sit still at dinner accidentally knocks all of the food onto the floor, to his parents' great displeasure.
- "Die Geschichte von Hans Guck-in-die-Luft" (The Story of Johnny Look-in-the-Air) concerns a boy who habitually fails to watch where he's walking. One day he walks into a river; he is soon rescued, but his portfolio drifts away.
- In "Die Geschichte vom fliegenden Robert" (The Story of Flying Robert), a boy goes outside during a storm. The wind catches his umbrella and sends him to places unknown, and presumably to his doom.
[edit] History
Hoffmann, a Frankfurt physician, wanted to buy a picture book for his son for Christmas in 1844. Not impressed by what the stores had to offer, he instead bought a notebook and wrote his own stories and pictures. Hoffmann was persuaded by friends to publish the book anonymously as Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder mit 15 schön kolorierten Tafeln für Kinder von 3-6 Jahren in 1845. It was not until the third edition in 1858 that the book was published under the title Struwwelpeter.
Struwwelpeter has been translated into several languages. The first English translation appeared in 1848. One English translation is due to Mark Twain.
In 2006, Fantagraphics Books published the first completely digital version of Struwwelpeter, reinterpreted and illustrated by Bob Staake.
[edit] Stage adaptations
Shockheaded Peter (SHP) is a musical entertainment based on Struwwelpeter, created by Julian Bleach, Anthony Cairns, Julian Crouch, Graeme Gilmour, Tamzin Griffin, Jo Pocock, Phelim McDermott, Michael Morris and The Tiger Lillies (Martyn Jacques, Adrian Huge and Adrian Stout). SHP combines elements of pantomime and puppetry with musical versions of the poems. Generally, the songs closely follow the text of the poems, but there are significant differences, tending towards giving the songs a much darker tone than the poems. Whereas the children in the poems only sometimes die, in the musical they all do. Commissioned by the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds and the Hammersmith Lyric in West London, the show debuted in 1998 in Leeds before moving to London and subsequently to world tours.
In 2006 a new production of the tales, called Struwwelpeter - In English! was taken to the 60th Edinburgh Festival in August. The production used a variety of magic, mime, physical theatre, and black-comedy to recreate the tales. The show had a sell-out run. [1]
[edit] Influence and references
Struwwelpeter is somewhat notorious for its perceived brutal treatment of the erring children. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, it has been influential on many later children's books, most notably Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In German, Max und Moritz bears a strong resemblance in style to Struwwelpeter. In addition:
- There is a Struwwelpeter museum in Frankfurt, Germany.
- Peter's frightful appearance is intentionally mirrored in that of the titular character in the 1991 film Edward Scissorhands, unable to groom himself due to having been created as an artificial man with scissors instead of hands, and having similarly messy hair to Peter's, and sharp scissors where Peter had untamed fingernails.
- The comic book writer Grant Morrison drew inspiration from Struwwelpeter during his tenure on the DC comic Doom Patrol when inventing several enemy monsters. The Tailor from The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb provided inspiration for The Scissormen in issues #19 to #22, where Struwwelpeter is quoted directly, and apparitions named The Inky Boys and Flying Robert appear in #25.
- Peter "Shock-Headed Peter" Cheney is a character in Alan Moore's comic book Top 10. He is a bigoted cop with electric powers.
- In the comic series London Falling Simon Spurrier introduces characters called Peter Struwwel and The Tailor based on Struwwelpeter and The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb, respectively.
- On March 16, 2006, the NBC network sitcom The Office aired an episode entitled "Take Your Daughter To Work Day". In it, Dwight Schrute begins to read the story to the children before he is interrupted by Michael Scott.
- In the UK, a Bristol based electronica DJ (real name Jack Rampling), is performing under the pseudonym "Struwwelpeter"
- Adolf Hitler and William II. have been parodied as Struwwelpeter caricatures.
- On Rammstein's 2005 album Rosenrot, the song "Hilf Mir" is based upon the story "Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug" (The Dreadful Story of Pauline and the Matches) from the Struwwelpeter stories.
- Jasper Fforde's book The Fourth Bear features a town with terrified, but obedient children, who always eat their soup, don't play with matches, and don't suck their thumbs. Some folks in town are actually missing their thumbs, courtesy of a scissor wielding maniac in red pants.
- This book was carried around by the poet Dylan Thomas.
- In M. J. Trow's pastiche The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade, the Scotland Yard detective investigates a continuing series of murders patterned after the Struwwelpeter cautionary tales.
[edit] External links
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