LIX. HANS JAKOB CHRISTOFFEL VON GRIMMELSHAUSEN

The most important writer of prose fiction in the 17th century (ca. 1625-1676). He spent his early years as a roving soldier. After the war he published anonymously a number of tales, which are known collectively as Simplicianische Schriften. The best of them is Der abentheuerliche Simplicissimus, which is largely autobiographic. The book parodies the fashionable romances of adventure and takes hints from the picaresque tales which had begun to come in from Spain. It is particularly interesting for its truthful pictures of German life in the time of the great war. The selection follows Braune’s Neudrucke, Nos. 19-25.