最傻的傻瓜 (1668)

Simplicius Simplicissimus (German: Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch) is a picaresque novel of the lower Baroque style, written in five books by German author Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen published in 1668, with the sequel Continuatio appearing in 1669. Inspired by the events and horrors of the Thirty Years' War which devastated Germany from 1618 to 1648, it is regarded as the first adventure novel in the German language and the first German novel masterpiece.

The full subtitle is "The account of the life of an odd vagrant 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." Grimmelshausen wrote several sequels that together form the Simplician Cycle: The Life of Courage and Tearaway from 1670 and the two-volume The Wondrous Bird's Nest from 1672 and 1675.

Structure

The work Simplicius Simplicissimus consists of five books nominally published in 1668, with a sequel Continuatio appearing in 1669. Each book is in turn divided into chapters. 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 Simplician Cycle.

The English translation by Alfred Thomas Scrope Goodrick (1912) included the five books and selected chapters from the continuation. The full translation by Monte Adair (1986–2012) includes the continuation as Book Six.

Authorship and publication

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 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 Beschluss, "postscript" to the Continuatio) near the end of the published work.

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.

Plot overview

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. 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.

Frontispiece monster

Much has been written on the frontispiece copperplate drawing (fig. top right) depicted an enigmatic winged monster holding an illustrated book.

It has been described as a composite creature (a chimera) with the features of a goat, fish, bird, human, though "Satyr-head" (Satyrkopf, rather than goat/human) on a Chimera body, may be more apt, since the satyr is a wordplay of the "satirical" nature of the work, though the label "chimera", has been criticized as strictly incorrect, as it does not match the classical (Homeric) chimera of the lion-goat-serpent variety.

The creature is arguably identifiable as the "phoenix copper" (German: Phönix-Kupfer), an embodiment of "the purpose of the book", particularly since there is an accompanying poem about the phoenix copper written in couplets Nevertheless, some authors reject identification with the phoenix, and conclude only that the creature should be treated as an intricate poetological symbol.

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)".

Jorge Luis Borges suggested that the frontispiece portrays shapeshifting Baldanders, but this proposal has not achieved general acceptance.

Literary analysis

The novel is considered by some to contain autobiographic elements, inspired by Grimmelshausen's experience in the war. It has been reported that as a child Grimmelshausen was kidnapped by Hessian and Croatian troops where he eventually served as a musketeer. 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."