Simplicius Simplicissimus
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- Simplicissimus was also a satirical German weekly inspired by this novel.
Simplicius Simplicissimus (German: Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch) is a picaresque novel of the Baroque style, written in 1668 by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen and published the subsequent year. Inspired by the events and horrors of the Thirty Years' War which had devastated Germany from 1618 to 1648, it is regarded as the first adventure novel in the German language. It contains autobiographic elements, inspired by Grimmelshausen's experience in the war.
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[edit] Opera adaptation
Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-1963) wrote the anti-war opera Simplicius Simplicissimus for chamber orchestra in the mid-1930's, with contributions to the libretto by his teacher Hermann Scherchen. 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. It was revived by the Stuttgart State Opera in 2004.[1]
[edit] Titles in English
It has been translated into English under a variety of titles:[2]
- Simplicissimus
- Simplicissimus the Vagabond
- Simplicius Simplicissimus
- The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus
- The Adventures of a Simpleton
- The Adventurous Simplicissimus
The full subtitle is "The life of a strange adventurer 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."
[edit] Satirical Weekly
Simplicissimus, derived from the above, was a satirical German weekly magazine started by Albert Langen in April 1896 and published through 1944.
[edit] Notes
- ^ George Loomis, "The vision of 'Simplicius'", International Herald Tribune, May 19, 2004
- ^ Harvard College Library catalogue[1]
