18 h 28 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can an innocent boy learn about goodness when soldiers destroy the only world he knows?
Deep in the Spessart forest, Simplicius lives with a peasant family, so ignorant that he does not know his own name. Then plundering soldiers arrive. Thrown into the Thirty Years War, he must learn how to survive and what to believe. A kind hermit offers shelter, a name and a conscience—but the world beyond the woods has other lessons.
In The Adventurous Simplicissimus, Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen turns a wandering life into sharp, often bitter comedy. Simplicius tells his own story as servant, fool, hunter, soldier and wanderer. Through his changing fortunes, the novel explores greed, faith, vanity and ambition. Its Germany is a place where ordinary people bear the damage of war, and innocence meets human folly.
What you’ll discover
- An innocent eye See familiar human failings through a forest boy who has almost everything to learn.
- War beyond the battlefield Encounter the damage done to ordinary lives, far from generals and treaties.
- The fool's uneasy wisdom Follow the tension between what Simplicius believes and how people around him behave.
- Two contrasting companions Meet honest Ulrich Herzbruder and ruthless Olivier, whose lives offer sharply different examples.
- Laughter with a bitter edge Discover comedy that exposes greed and vanity without looking away from suffering.
Who will love it
For readers who love adventure stories with a satirical edge, and anyone curious about the Thirty Years War as ordinary people lived it.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A boy raised in total ignorance
- Soldiers destroy the only home he knows
- A hermit gives him faith and a name
- The fool of Hanau
- The Hunter of Soest and a soldier's rise
- Paris, vanity and a fall from favour
- What the war does to ordinary people
- Folly, wisdom and the pull of the world
- A fake memoir with a wandering shape
Who’s who
- SimpliciusThe narrator and hero, a simple forest boy who is swept through the war and must learn how to survive and what to believe.
- The KnanThe peasant who raises Simplicius on a remote farm and whose household is the boy's only world until the soldiers come.
- The hermitAn old man living alone in the forest who gives Simplicius his name, teaches him to read and pray, and shapes his conscience.
- The governor of HanauThe commander of the garrison at Hanau, who takes Simplicius into his household and lets him live as a jester.
- Ulrich HerzbruderA loyal and honest soldier who becomes the closest friend of Simplicius and stands as a model of steady goodness.
- OlivierA quick, ruthless and charming soldier whose path keeps crossing that of Simplicius, and who serves as a darker mirror to him.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 18 h 28 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 13 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus
by Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen · 1668
Soldiers shatter a forest boy's world as he learns how to survive and what to believe in the Thirty Years War.
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In short
The Adventurous Simplicissimus is a German novel published in 1668, with a sixth book added the next year. Its author, Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen, lived through the Thirty Years War.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A boy raised in total ignorance
The story opens in the Spessart, a wooded region of central Germany. Simplicius tells us he has no idea who he is. He lives on an isolated farm with a peasant he calls his Knan, a word for father, and a woman he calls his Meuder, a word for mother. They treat him as a servant and a child, and he spends his days herding sheep.
The boy is wonderfully simple. He has no notion of religion beyond a few words he cannot understand. He has never met a soldier, a priest or a town dweller. When he is told to pray, he repeats the words without any idea of their meaning. Grimmelshausen makes this ignorance very funny, but he also uses it as a kind of test. A person with no learning sees the world plainly, and the narrator suggests that plain sight may be worth something.
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What is The Adventurous Simplicissimus about?
It tells the life of Simplicius, a boy raised in ignorance in a forest farm, who is thrown into the Thirty Years War and passes through many roles, from fool to soldier to wealthy wanderer.
Is Simplicissimus a true story?
No, it is a novel, but it draws on what Grimmelshausen saw as a soldier in the Thirty Years War. It was published in 1668 and is presented as the invented memoir of its hero.
What does the name Simplicius mean?
The name comes from the Latin word for simple. The hermit gives it to the boy because he knows nothing, and the name stays with him as a reminder of his innocence and his later folly.
The author
Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen
1622–1676 · German novelist
Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen was a German writer who lived from 1622 to 1676. He was born in Gelnhausen and died in Renchen. He wrote The Adventurous Simplicissimus, published in 1668, and other novels. From 1667 until his death, he served as a local official in Renchen.
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