more than three centuries ago (in 1668) the son of a baker, Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, published in Germany the most important novel of seventeenth-century German Baroque: "The Adventurous Simplicissimus: the narrative of the life of a curious wanderer nicknamed Melchior von Fuchshaim Sternfels, where and how so came into this world, what we saw, learned, lived and suffered, and also how he voluntarily resigned. Extremely funny and very helpful to read. "
What is extraordinary about this novel, which once published its success was immediate and devastating and reprinted hundreds of times, and caused extensive grassroots fervor, and then, too, the likes of Heine, the brothers Grimm, Lessing, Leibniz, Goethe, Thomas Mann (inspired her while writing "Doctor Faustus"), Brecht (who based his "Mother Courage" in the original - Courasche "of Grimmelshausen) Enzenshberger, Guimaraes Rosa? To critics it is not easy to locate. He calls the author Grimmelshausen atypical of the German Baroque, because his novel, part of the picaresque genre, uplifting, moral, religious, beautiful, educational, etc., Ahead of polyphony vajtiniana and establishes itself just such atypical works older literature.
Grimmelshausen's life has gaps and points of interest. Born near Frankfurt in 1622, within Protestantism, and died in 1676 as a Catholic. It should be emphasized religious militancy because she, in the feudal world then, was the spark ideological (not political) of the famous War Thirty Years (1618-1648) between Catholics and Protestants.
lives of soldiers and fittings, their city is destroyed, is imprisoned, becomes a soldier, was home at the end of the war and then made official. It grows in the war, education in life. His only instruction appears to be the primary studies, and generally is self-taught. His biography is unbecoming of a writer. However, with so little time, full of work, published over twenty books in less than ten years.
Of all his works remains only one with his contagious vitality and popular Baroque: Simplicissimus. It vibrates the European war, but has no nothing to do with heroism or glory. On the contrary: the war is seen in all its horrors, crimes and atrocities. "The glorious deeds of heroes would be much to praise if they had not gotten to the sinking and damage of other men," says the author.
The hero of the novel, because of its simplicity and simplicity, is called Simplicius by a hermit who has collected after the pillage of the soldiers. Learn to read and write, and once lost his protector, a governor serves it stupid fool. Then, after intensive vicissitudes flee during the war is a soldier, thief, highwayman, and all soldiers in general. Under the principle that "war itself is held, farmers must bear all the indignities and exploitation. Naive and childish, Simplicius is transformed into the fearsome hunter Soest, given all the debauchery and crime.
His fate are erratic. Married, he travels to Paris and holds amorous fun. Falls from grace, escapes, becomes a healer, Musketeer, lurker, and finally, after a pilgrimage to an old friend, he settled in the Black Forest, where he met his noble birth and remarries. He traveled to Moscow and then to the bottom of lakes, talk with loved submarines and one of them, anticipating a topic Marxist, says he "did not have a king justice dictate them or to force them to be served, but that will lead them in their businesses and enterprises. " Simplicius returns home and becomes a hermit.
This argument, as tight as arbitrary, depicts the adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus (later renamed view Sternsfels Melchior von Fuchshaim) and all the vicissitudes of war. Do not forget that at the end of this Germany had lost half of its population, whole areas were destroyed and the country's economy was in ruins. The implications of the novel, and his performances are varied and complex.
But one stands out clearly and heel serves as background to fully understand the continuing vitality of the work. This is your starting point. There's a song in the novel says "Oh, despised peasantry, / are you the best thing on earth! / No man ever leaves compliment / in fixed their attention on you."
Indeed, Grimmelshausen is a popular author, raised and educated in the people and for the people. Is the enemy of intellectuals that mimic exotic fashion and courtly manners. Only he, and few others, derive their literary characters of the people and not the court or the city, they are rather anti-heroes who never attended schools, universities and classrooms. His language is also popular, as live so close to Hans Magnus Enzensberger believes that "no precedent in the tradition is freshly minted and has kept its luster intact ... If you listen, you almost can not believe that is the same age as the palace Versailles ... "
Grimmelshausen copied the language of the people and their stylistic forms, and implemented numerous dialects that dominated German fluently.
This starting point is what also sets the stage for the works of Homer, Boccaccio, Rabelais, Shackespeare (which was torn between the classical literature, and modern popular among a small audience.) Despite his self-taught writer position, Grimmelshausen its novel structure based on Aristotelian principles. His comparison can not be other than El Quijote ... with which begins the great literature of their countries of origin. The Simplicissimus in Germany, marks the beginning of the modern novel, the rise of German picaresque and unquestionable triumph of popular art.
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