Simplicius Simplicissimus

The work Simplicius Simplicissimus consists of five books nominally published 1668, with a sequel Continuatio appearing in 1669. Each book is in turn divided into chapters.{{sfn|Fleishman|2011|pp=4, 8}}{{efn|name=publishing_info}} The Continuatio is considered the sixth book of the same cycle by scholars, though Grimmelshausen altogether produced ten titles which he claimed belong to the same set.

The English translation by Alfred Thomas Scrope Goodrick (1912){{sfnp|Breuer|2003|p=250}} included the five books and selected chapters from the continuation.{{sfnp|Grimmelshausen|Goodrick tr.|1912}} The full translation by Monte Adair (1986–2012) includes the continuation as Book Six.{{sfnp|Grimmelshausen|Adair tr.|1986–2012}}

Simplicius Simplicissimus was published as the work of Samuel Greifnsohn vom Hirschfelt (Hirschfeld), with German Schleifheim von Sulsfort as its supposed author, but these have been deduced to be anagrammatical pseudonyms{{efn|i.e., imperfect anagrams of "Christoffel von Grimmelshausen"}} of the real author, Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, whose name is only disclosed in initials "H.I.C.V.G." in an advertisement (or rather {{lang|de|{{linktext|Beschluss}}}}, "postscript" to the Continuatio) near the end of the published work.{{sfnp|Grimmelshausen|Goodrick tr.|1912}}

The first edition pretends to have been printed at Mompelgart (Mömpelgart, present-day Montbéliard, France) by "Johann Fillion", but in fact they were printed in Nürnberg by Wolff Eberhard Felßecker, and though the colophon gave 1669 as the date, the publication had already appeared in 1668.

File:Grimmelshausen 1669.jpg

The novel is told from the perspective of its protagonist Simplicius, a rogue or picaro typical of the picaresque novel, as he traverses the tumultuous world of the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War. Raised by a peasant family, he is separated from his home by foraging dragoons and is adopted by a hermit living in the forest, who teaches him to read and introduces him to religion. The hermit also gives Simplicius his name because he was so simple that he did not know what his own name was.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/|title=Literatur – Kultur|magazine=Der Spiegel}}{{full citation needed|date=March 2024|reason=Utterly insufficient citation}} After the death of the hermit, Simplicius must fend for himself. He is conscripted at a young age into service, and from there embarks on years of foraging, military triumph, wealth, prostitution, disease, bourgeois domestic life, and travels to Russia, France, and to an alternate world inhabited by mermen. The novel ends with Simplicius turning to a life of hermitage himself, denouncing the world as corrupt.

File:Grimmelshausen-Oberkirch-front.jpg

File:Grimmelshausen-Oberkirch-side.jpg

Much has been written on the frontispiece copperplate drawing (fig. top right) depicted an enigmatic winged monster holding an illustrated book.{{sfnp|Gersch|2015|p=3}}{{Refn|A survey of scholarship is given by Conny Bauer (1980), Phönix-Kupfer, cited by {{harvp|Gersch|2015|p=3}}}}

It has been described as a composite creature (a chimera) with the features of a goat, fish, bird, human, though "Satyr-head" ({{lang|de|Satyrkopf}}, rather than goat/human) on a Chimera body,{{sfnp|Grimmelshausen|Breuer ed.|1989|loc=1.1: 794}} may be more apt, since the satyr is a wordplay of the "satirical" nature of the work,{{sfnp|Greene|2003|p=346}} though the label "chimera",As used for example by {{harvp|Grimmelshausen|Breuer ed.|1989|p=1.1: 794}}}, loc. cit., and pp. 989, 1004, cited by {{harvp|Gersch|2015|p=3}}, note 6. has been criticized as strictly incorrect, as it does not match the classical (Homeric) chimera of the lion-goat-serpent variety.{{sfnp|Gersch|2015|p=3}}

The creature is arguably identifiable as the "phoenix copper" ({{langx|de|Phönix-Kupfer}}), an embodiment of "the purpose of the book". There is an accompanying poem about the phoenix copper written in couplets{{harvp|Grimmelshausen|Adair tr.|1986–2012|p=14}}.{{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=aD5kF6blxIkC&pg=PA14 |2=The "Phoenix Copper", the allegorical frontispiece}}. which should provide some clue as to its meaning. The author of a monograph on the subject shuns the identification with the phoenix,{{Refn|The "phoenix" label{{harvp|Grimmelshausen|Kelletat ed.|1956}}, Nachwort, p. 631 and note 42, cited by {{harvp|Gersch|2015|p=3}}, note 7. and concludes it should be treated as a detailedly constructed poetological symbol.{{harvp|Gersch|2015}}. {{URL|1=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110915150/html?lang=en |2=English summary}}}}

The creature has also been interpreted as representing the true author himself (or his narrative work), with the book and the sword serving as mundane objects straightforwardly defining his identity, while the additional parts such as the wings (alluding to air) and the fins and fishtail (water) are allusive hints. This man has enacted many roles (indicated by the masks scattered on the floor), but presently is donning the mask of the "satirical actor" in order to perform the task of explaining the world to his audience while pointing-gesturing his book. The creature exists as a whole though made up of odd disparate parts, hence the title copperplate etching is an emblem that serves to preserve the "unity of the narrative about the I(ego)".

The notion that the frontispiece portrays shapeshifting Baldanders, as maintained by the writer Jorge Luis Borges,Borges, Jorge Luis. (1992) Werke in 20 Bänden. Bd. 8, Einhorn, Sphinx, und Salamander. El libro de los seres imaginarios [Das Buch der imaginären Wesen; cited by {{harvp|Gersch|2015|p=3}}, note 6. is also refuted.{{sfnp|Gersch|2015|p=3}}

The novel is considered by some to contain autobiographic elements, inspired by Grimmelshausen's experience in the war.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Grimmelshausen, Hans Jakob Christoffel von}} It has been reported that as a child Grimmelshausen was kidnapped by Hessian and Croatian troops where he eventually served as a musketeer.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hans-Jacob-Christoph-von-Grimmelshausen|title = Hans Jacob Christoph von Grimmelshausen | German novelist| date=8 March 2024 }} The historian Robert Ergang, however, draws upon Gustav Könnecke's Quellen und Forschungen zur Lebensgeschichte Grimmelshausens to assert that "the events related in the novel Simplicissimus could hardly have been autobiographical since [Grimmelshausen] lived a peaceful existence in quiet towns and villages on the fringe of the Black Forest and that the material he incorporated in his work was not taken from actual experience, but was either borrowed from the past, collected from hearsay, or created by a vivid imagination."{{cite book|last=Ergang|first=Robert H.|title=The Myth of the All-Destructive Fury of the Thirty Years' War|location=Pocono Pines, PA|publisher=The Craftsmen|year=1956|oclc=905630683}}

The adventures of Simplicissimus became so popular that they were reproduced by authors in other European countries. Simplicissimus was recreated in French, English, and Turkish. A Hungarian Simplicissimus (Ungarischer oder Dacianischer Simplicissimus) was published in 1683.{{sfnp|Breuer|2003|p=237}}Ahmedaja, A., ed., European Voices III: The Instrumentation and Instrumentalization of Sound Local Multipart Music Practices in Europe (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2017), [https://books.google.com/books?id=f5EwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA249 p. 249]. The author remained anonymous but is now generally considered to be Breslau-born Daniel Speer.{{sfnp|Breuer|2003|p=237}}{{cite journal| author=Gyula Ortutay| author-link=Gyula Ortutay|year=1957| title=A Magyar Simplicissimus |journal=Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények|volume=34. évfolyam |issue=1–2. szám |url=http://epa.oszk.hu/00000/00001/00202/pdf/ITK_00202_1957_01-02_151-156.pdf | accessdate=2015-11-21 }}

Johann Strauss II composed an operetta based on the novel.

20th-century composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann wrote the anti-war opera Simplicius Simplicissimus for chamber orchestra in the mid-1930s, with contributions to the libretto by his teacher Hermann Scherchen.Kater, M. H., [https://books.google.com/books?id=GC0LGe3uzK0C The Twisted Muse: Musicians and Their Music in the Third Reich] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). It opens:{{blockquote|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. The chamber version (properly Des Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend) was revived by the Stuttgart State Opera in 2004.George Loomis, "The vision of 'Simplicius'", [http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/05/19/loomis_ed3_.php International Herald Tribune, May 19, 2004]

{{illm|Des Christoffel von Grimmelshausen abenteuerlicher Simplizissimus|de|lt=Des Christoffel von Grimmelshausen abenteuerlicher Simplizissimus}}, a historically dramatised TV series based on the book was produced by ZDF in 1975.{{Cite serial|title=Des Christoffel von Grimmelshausen abenteuerlicher Simplizissimus|people=Fritz Umgelter (Director)|trans-title=Grimmelshausen's adventurous Simplicissimus|language=de|year=1975|type=TV series|network=ZDF|asin=B00JFIPU4Y}}

The story was adapted into a newspaper comic strip by Raymond Lavigne and Gilbert Bloch in 1954.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/bloch_gilbert.htm|title=Gilbert Bloch|website=lambiek.net}}

The Hunter of Soest ({{langx|de|Der Jäger von Soest}}) is one of the aliases Simplicius uses in the novel. The city of Soest developed this into the local mascot {{ill|Das Jägerken von Soest|de}} (the little hunter of Soest) in 1976. Every year a citizen is selected, who then gets to represent the town and charitable projects of his choice in costume.{{cite web|title=Das Jägerken von Soest|url=https://www.allerheiligenkirmes.de/rund-um-die-kirmes/das-jaegerken/|publisher=Wirtschaft und Marketing Soest GmbH|work=allerheiligenkirmes.de|accessdate=2019-11-18|archive-date=2019-11-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116155739/https://www.allerheiligenkirmes.de/rund-um-die-kirmes/das-jaegerken/|url-status=dead}}

The {{ill|Simplicissimus-Haus|de}} is a museum in the town of Renchen. It opened in 1998 and focuses on the reception of Grimmelshausen's works in modern art.

Right in front of it stands a 1977 bronze statue by Giacomo Manzù, showing Simplicius in his Hunter of Soest character.{{cite web|title=Simplicissimus-Haus|url=https://www.renchen.de/kultur-stadtgeschichte/simplicissimus-haus/|publisher=City of Renchen|work=renchen.de|accessdate=2019-11-19}}

Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus is used throughout John le Carré's novel A Perfect Spy (1986) as Magnus Pym's permanent key for one-time pad coding. More importantly, Pym's own life is represented as a picaresque: a boy dragged along in his father's career of frauds, and a man in the British intelligence service, making up lies and exaggerations about his life.

Grimmelshausen was used in other Le Carré novels as well. Le Carré was a medieval German scholar (as was his character George Smiley).

Smiley sold a prized Grimmelshausen first edition at the beginning of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (in a fit of pique, because Ann had spent most of his pension check on an excursion with her latest lover). Actually, Smiley did not sell it, though such was his intention. He left it at Martindale's club, where it remained "still uncollected", as Le Carré writes at the very end of the novel.

Gunter Grass uses Grimmelshausen as a character in his book The meeting at Telgte.

English translations include:

• {{cite book |ref={{SfnRef|Grimmelshausen|Goodrick tr.|1912}} |author-last=Grimmelshausen |author-first=Hans Jakob Christoffel von |author-link=Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen |translator-last=Goodrick |translator-first=Alfred Thomas Scrope (A.T.S.G.) |translator-link= |title=The Adventurous Simplicissimus |location=London |publisher=William Heinemann |date=1912 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6SobAAAAYAAJ |page= |isbn= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111070203/https://books.google.com/books?id=6SobAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=2023-01-11 |access-date=2023-01-11 |url-status=bot: unknown }}
• See also [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33858 Project Gutenberg copy] and [https://archive.org/details/simplicissimusva00grim later edition with new intro].
• —— (Spring 2002) [https://web.archive.org/web/20100128103151/http://rbsche.people.wm.edu/teaching/grimmelshausen/ The Simplicissimus Project], the 1912 translation by A. T. S. Goodrick with material added by students at the College of William & Mary.
• —— (1976) [1965]. "Simplicius Simplicissimus, translation and introduction by Schulz-Behrend, George. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company. {{isbn|978-0672604249}}
• —— (1993). The Adventure of Simplicius Simplicissimus, translation and intrododuction by Schulz-Behrend, George. Columbia, South Carolina: Camden House (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics and Culture 1). {{isbn| 978-1879751385}}
• —— (2006) [1999]. Simplicissimus, translated by Mitchell, Mike (rev. ed.). Dedalus. Shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. {{ISBN|978-1903517420}}
• —— (2008). Simplicissimus, The German Adventurer, translated by John C. Osborne, Newfound Press. {{ISBN|978-0-9797292-5-6}}
• {{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Grimmelshausen|Adair tr.|1986–2012}} |author-last=Grimmelshausen |author-first=Hans Jakob Christoffel von |author-link=Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen |author-mask=2 |translator-last=Adair |translator-first=Monte |translator-link= |title=Simplicius Simplicissimus |location= |publisher= Monte Frederick Adair|date=1986–2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aD5kF6blxIkC |page=|isbn=978-3-941170-68-1}} Free download.
• —— (2018). [https://books.google.com/books?id=PaszDwAAQBAJ The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus], translated by Underwood, J. A. Penguin Classics, {{ISBN|9780141982120}}

The German text is publicly available through Project Gutenberg: [https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/grimmels/simpl/index.html Simplicius Simplicissimus].

PDFs of the original German-language edition, bearing the date 1669 but probably published already in 1668, may be downloaded from [http://digital.blb-karlsruhe.de/urn/urn:nbn:de:bsz:31-7264 the Badische Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe] and from [http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/lo-2309/start.htm?image=00001 the Herzog-August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel].

• {{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Grimmelshausen|Breuer ed.|1989}} |editor-last=Breuer |editor-first=Dieter |editor-link=　|author-last=Grimmelshausen |author-first=Hans Jakob Christoffel von |author-link=Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen |author-mask=2 |title=Simplicissimus Teutsch |series=Werke |volume=1 |number=1 |location=|publisher=Deutscher Klassiker Verlag |date=1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GglcAAAAMAAJ |page=|isbn=9783618664604 }}
• {{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Grimmelshausen|Kelletat ed.|1956}} |editor-last=Kelletat |editor-first=Alfred |editor-link=　|author-last=Grimmelshausen |author-first=Hans Jakob Christoffel von |author-link=Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen |author-mask=2 |title=Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus |location=Munich |publisher=Winkler |date=1956 |url= |page=}}

{{notelist|refs=

{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|name=publishing_info|Author, publisher and location all intentionally named non-existing entities, also the date given (1669) is considered false, as the first documented printing occurred in Nuremberg in 1668.}}

}}

;Citations

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

Bauer, Conny (1980). Das Phönix-Kupfer von Grimmelshausens Abentheuerlichem Simplicissimus. Zur Forschungslage. In: Text und Kontext 8, pp. 43–62.

{{cite book|last1=Berghaus |first1=Peter |author1-link= |last2=Berghaus|first2= Günther |author2-link= |title=Simplicius Simplicissimus: Grimmelshausen und seine Zeit |publisher=Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe |date=1976 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GglcAAAAMAAJ |page=114 |isbn=9783618664604 }}

{{harvp|Breuer|1999|p=30}} {{in lang|de}}:{{quotation|{{lang|de|Der angegebene Druckort »Monpelgart« (die damals noch württembergische Stadt Mömpelgart, Montbeliard am Doubs) ist eine Fiktion, ein beliebter fiktiver Druikort für satirische Literatur. Tatsächlich ist das Werk in Nürnberg erschienen, auch nicht bei „Johann Fillion", sondern bei Wolff Eberhard Felßecker, und das Erscheinungsjahr 1669 ist eine Vorausdatierung; der Roman erschien bereits 1668.}}}}

{{void|{{cite book|chapter=VD 17|chapter-url=http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/lo-2309/start.htm?image=00001|title=Handbuch der Barockliteratur: Hundert Personalbibliographien deutscher Autoren des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts|trans-title=Manual of baroque literature: One hundred personal bibliographies of 17th century German authors|language=de|editor-last=Dünnhaupt|editor-first=Gerhard |editor-link=Gerhard Dünnhaupt |series=Hiersemanns bibliographische Handbücher|edition=No. 2|publisher=Anton Hiersemann|location=Stuttgart|year=1980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kyTsAAAAMAAJ&q=Simplicissimus}}}}

{{cite encyclopedia|last=Konzett |first=Matthias |author-link= |entry=Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1611–1676 |title=Encyclopedia of German Literature |location= |publisher=Routledge |date=2000 |entry-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C-I4CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT823 |pages= |isbn=9781135941291}}

{{cite journal|last=Schweitzer |first=Christoph E. |author-link= |title=Grimmelshausen, Philarchus Grossus von Tromerheim, and'Simplicianische Schriften'|journal=Monatshefte |volume=82 |number=2 |date=Summer 1990 |url= |pages=116|jstor=30155248}}

{{cite book|last=Tatlock |first=Lynne |author-link= |chapter=Johann Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen |title=Seventeenth Century German Prose: Grimmelshausen, Leibniz, Opitz, Weise, and Others |location=New York |publisher=Continuum Publishing Company |date=1993 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3iiSG3mxqsIC&pg=PA165 |pages=165–166 |isbn=9780826407108 |series=German Library 7}}

}}

Bibliography

• {{citation|last=Breuer |first=Dieter |author-link= |title=Grimmelshausen-Handbuch |location= |publisher=Fink |date=1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ucfAQAAIAAJ |pages=|isbn=9783825281823 |series=UTB für Wissenschaft 8182}}
• {{citation|last=Breuer |first=Dieter |author-link= |author-mask=2 |title=In Grimmelshausen's Tracks: The Literary and Cultural Legacy |editor-last=Otto |editor-first=Karl F. |editor-link= |work=A Companion to the Works of Grimmelshausen |location= |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |date=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NOD2AigkyWAC&pg=PA250 |pages=231–267 |isbn=9781571131843}}
• {{cite journal|last=Fleishman |first=Ian Thomas |author-link= |title=A Printed Proteus: Textual Identity in Grimmelshausen's 'Simplicissimus Teutsch'|journal=The German Quarterly |volume=84 |number=1 |date=Winter 2011 |url= |pages=4–20 |doi=10.1111/j.1756-1183.2011.00101.x |jstor=41237042}}
• {{citation|last=Greene |first=Shannon Keenan |author-link= |title="To see from these black lines": The Mise en Livre of the Phoenix Copperplate and Other Grimmelshausen Illustrations |editor-last=Otto |editor-first=Karl F. |editor-link= |work=A Companion to the Works of Grimmelshausen |location= |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |date=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NOD2AigkyWAC |pages=333–358 |isbn=9781571131843}} ([https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/companion-to-the-works-of-grimmelshausen/to-see-from-these-black-lines-the-mise-en-livre-of-the-phoenix-copperplate-and-other-grimmelshausen-illustrations/42D8E3D860A9576640FFC90F0F8977B1 Summary])
• {{citation|last=Gersch |first=Hubert |author-link= |title=Literarisches Monstrum und Buch der Welt: Grimmelshausens Titelbild zum »Simplicissimus Teutsch« |location= |publisher=Walter de Gruyter|date=2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tidfCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 |pages=|isbn=9783110915150}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1668 novels

Category:17th-century German novels

Category:German picaresque novels

Category:German adventure novels

Category:Novels set during the Thirty Years' War

Category:Mermaid novels

Category:Novels adapted into comics

Category:German novels adapted into operas

Category:German novels adapted into television shows

Category:First-person narrative novels