Peter Schlemiel

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Peter Schlemiel is the title character of an 1814 story, "Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte" ("Peter Schlemihl's Remarkable Story"),^[1] written in German by exiled French aristocrat Adelbert von Chamisso. In the story, Schlemiel sells his shadow to the Devil for a bottomless wallet, only to find that a man without a shadow is shunned by human society. The woman he loves rejects him, and he spends the rest of his life wandering the world in scientific exploration.

The Yiddish word Schlemiel—and its Hebrew cognate Shlumi'el—mean a hopelessly incompetent person, a bungler. Consequently, the name is a synonym of one who makes a desperate or silly bargain.

Contents 1 Reception and cultural influence 2 Later retellings 3 References 4 Sources 5 External links

[edit] Reception and cultural influence

The story, intended for children, was widely read and the character became a common cultural reference in many countries. People generally remembered the element of the shadow better than how the story ended, simplifying Chamisso's lesson to "don't sell your shadow to the Devil."

[edit] Later retellings

In the third act of Jacques Offenbach's 1881 opera, Les contes d'Hoffmann, a similarly-named character, Schlemil, has also given up his shadow.

The story is referred to by Ludwig Wittgenstein in his Philosophical Investigations (Section 339).

The story was performed on American television, in a 1953 episode of Favorite Story, starring DeForest Kelley as the title character.^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.

• Peter Schlemiel : The Man Who Sold His Shadow
• Hana Hou Magazine, June/July 2003

[edit] External links

• "The Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl" at michaelhaldane.com