Peter Camenzind by Hermann Hesse

German Literature

Original title: Peter Camenzind

Translator:  W J Strachan

Source – Personal copy

I’m on to the second book for German Lit Month, and I’m surprised I haven’t reviewed a book by Hesse in all the time I have been blogging. I read a lot of his books in my teens; I think the time is best to read books like Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and the one I always remember from that time: The Glass Bead Game.  Which of those three books was my favourite? So when it came to the second book for this month, I thought I might just start with Hesse’s debut novella I have most of his novels, but it made sense to start with this, his debut novella, a book published in 1904.  It is, like a number of books, what is called a bildungsroman: a book that features a person growing up; in this case, it is the title Character.

My father’s hut bordered on a tiny, fenced garden where there grew bitter lettuces, carrots and cabbages.
In addition, my mother had prepared a touchingly small flower-bed in which a couple of china roses, a dahlia and a handful of mignonette languished hopelessly and miserably. Next to our garden was a still smaller gravel-led patch which stretched as far as the lake. There stood two damaged barrels, some boards and fence-stakes, and moored in the water below was our punt, which in those days was repaired and caulked every few years. The days on which these operations were carried out are still firmly fixed in my memory. They were warm, early summer afternoons; over the garden the brimstones fluttered in the sunlight, the lake was as smooth as oil, blue and motionless, softly iridescent, the mountain tops were thinly veiled in mist and the little gravelled patch smelt strongly of tar and paint. Even afterwards, the boat smelt strongly of tar throughout the summer.
Many years later, whenever by the sea I came upon this peculiar smell, of tar and water, I would at once see our little gravelled landing-place and my father

His small village and his hut growing up

Peter Camezind is a boy who grows up to become a man in a small rural village in the Swiss mountains.  We follow him as he escapes after doing well in school; first, he heads to Zurich and is initially blown away by how big the city is and how out of place he is as a country boy.  But soon fits in and discovers two thing Drink and Woman he has a relationship and as he finishes his eductaion we see him travel and this is where we get a sort of man seeing the world around him and having his eyes open to losing love and how tough the world can be as he heads getting first chance to learn more then jobs around tboth France and Italy but as he mioves around he can see the impact of the modern age on the world especially the world he rew up in  so when two things happen he makes friends with a man Boppui that is disabled the two form a close bond that is almost a love affair and this opens Peters eyes to the world and the suffering of those in it and the beauty of nature but also how the relgion is seen by him after all this.

Then there was a boisterous fair-haired boy in our class who was extremely versatile-musican, mimic, and clown. I won his friendship though not without effort, and my cheerful little contemporary always adopted a slightly superior attitude towards me. All the same, I now had a friend. I sought him out in his small study, read a few books with him, did his Greek exercises, and in return I enlisted his help for my mathematics. We also went on many walks together and must indeed have looked an ill assorted couple. He did all the talking, gay, witty and completely at ease; and I listened and laughed, happy to have such a light-hearted companion.

When he starts studying

Now, these themes and the whole story are themes Hesse had used in his other books, using Bildungsroman as his values and views change throughout his life. This reflects much of what happened in his life.  Going from a small village town to the big city.Growing up in a strict Christian background and then seeing the wider world.  Suffering and escape are themes he often uses. I saw the village he leaves, and later in the book, when his father is near the end of his life, similar to the village in Arno Camenisch’s book, rural idyllic life from the outside.  I like a bildungsroman, and this is a great example for me; I’d rather have this than, say, Stoner, as the two main characters have similar paths in life from small rural places to academia.  They also have similar relationships that don’t fully work out.  But what HESSE DOES IN BRING Peter and Boppi together is change the story into one of questioning life more and what the world is about, and about the choices we all make, which is something he returned to in his other books; spiritual paths and how we live our lives are always themes in his books.  I will be reading him again in less than 17 years!