Synopses & Reviews
In the spring of 1922, several months after completing
Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse wrote a fairy tale that was also a love story, inspired by the woman who was to become his second wife. That story,
Pictors Metamorphoses, is the centerpiece of this anthology of Hesses luminous short fiction. Based on
The Arabian Nights and the work of the Brothers Grimm, the nineteen stories collected here represent a half century of Hesse's short writings. They display the full range of Hesses lifetime fascination with fantasy--as dream, fairy tale, satire, or allegory.
Hermann Hesse was born in Germany in 1877 and later became a citizen of Switzerland. As a Western man profoundly affected by the mysticism of Eastern thought, he wrote many novels, stories, and essays that bear a vital spiritual force that has captured the imagination and loyalty of many generations of readers. His works include Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund, and The Glass Bead Game. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. Hermann Hesse died in 1962.
In the spring of 1922, several months after completing Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse wrote a fairy tale that was also a love story, inspired by the woman who was to become his second wife. That story, "Pictors Metamorphoses," is the centerpiece of this anthology of Hesses luminous short fiction.
Based on The Arabian Nights and the work of the Brothers Grimm, the nineteen stories collected here represent a half century of Hesses short writings. They display the full range of Hesses lifetime fascination with fantasyas dream, fairy tale, satire, or allegory. This edition includes an introduction by Theodore Ziolkowski in which Hesses debt to earlier fantasy literature is fully explored.
"Enchanting."Los Angeles Times
"Hesse is a writer of suggestion, of nuance, of spiritual intimation."The Christian Science Monitor
"One of the defining spirits of our century."Ralph Freedman, professor emeritus, Princeton University
"These moral fantasies . . . are the autobiography of a soul."The Washington Post
"An array of fanciful tales . . . as entertaining as it is instructive . . . Hesse strives to make his lessons universal, examines archetypal tendencies and pattern in generations of storytelling, and reestablishes the forgotten truth that goodness and justice are timeless."Chronicle of Culture
Review
"Enchanting." --
Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
In the spring of 1922, several months after completing
Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse wrote a fairy tale that was also a love story, inspired by the woman who was to become his second wife. That story,
Pictors Metamorphoses, is the centerpiece of this anthology of Hesses luminous short fiction. Based on
The Arabian Nights and the work of the Brothers Grimm, the nineteen stories collected here represent a half century of Hesse's short writings. They display the full range of Hesses lifetime fascination with fantasy--as dream, fairy tale, satire, or allegory.
About the Author
Hermann Hesse was born in Germany in 1877 and later became a citizen of Switzerland. As a Western man profoundly affected by the mysticism of Eastern thought, he wrote novels, stories, and essays bearing a vital spiritual force that has captured the imagination and loyalty of many generations of readers. His works include
Steppenwolf,
Narcissus and Goldmund, and
The Glass Bead Game. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. Hermann Hesse died in 1962.
Table of Contents
Lulu (1900)
Hannes (1906)
The Merman (1907)
The Enamored Youth (1907)
Three Lindens (1912)
The Man of the Forests (1914)
The Dream of the Gods (1914)
The Painter (1918)
Tale of the Wicker Chair (1918)
Conversation with the Stove (1919)
Pictors Metamorphoses (1922)
The Tourist City in the South (1925)
Among the Massagetae (1927)
King Yu (1929)
Bird (1932)
Nocturnal Games (1948)
Report from Normalia (1948)
Christmas with Two Childrens Stories (1950)
The Jackdaw (1951)