Résumé
Résumé de Hypérion
Go deeper: the whole of Hypérion
About 4 h 50 min to read.À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Perfect for readers who love castles, legends and old German songs, who enjoy talk about poets and art, and who like a gentle love story set among lakes, glaciers and mountain villages.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Can you outrun grief by crossing a continent? Paul Flemming, a young American, tries. Hyperion, a romance by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, follows him from the winter Rhine to the Alps, with legends, poems, lively talk and a growing love along the way. It begins on a misty December morning at Rolandseck, where Flemming stands at a window, sleepless and sad.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Flemming carries his grief up the RhineFree
- 2A ruin warns him against idle dreaming
- 3Scholars and poets belong in the living world
- 4Spring brings love, danger and student high jinks
- 5Travel and talk carry him through the summer
- 6In the Alps a new voice calls to him
- 7Art, poems and love grow side by side
- 8Friendship offers a different kind of comfort
- 9The book asks how to live now
Point clé 1 sur 9
Flemming carries his grief up the Rhine
Paul Flemming is a young American whose happy life has been broken by death. He goes abroad hoping that a sea will lie between him and his sorrow, but sorrow travels with him.
At Rolandseck he rises before dawn after a sleepless night and looks out on the island of Nonnenwerth and the hill called the Drachenfels, wrapped in mist. Old legends rise in his mind, such as the tale of Roland, who watches the convent where his lost love lies. At Andernach he visits the old round tower and finds the keeper's daughter gone. Back at the inn, a very old woman tells him the story of the Christ of Andernach, a wooden figure that leaves its cross at night to repair things for poor people and bring bread to a homeless mother with her child.
Longfellow sets the tone here. Grief is not argued away. It is carried, and the river, the ruins and the stories slowly begin to work on it.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Hypérion
About 4 h 50 min to read.Who’s who
- Paul Flemming
- Paul Flemming is a grieving American scholar whose European travels bring him new friends, including Mary Ashburton.
- Mary Ashburton
- Mary Ashburton is a thoughtful Englishwoman whose companionship awakens new feelings in the grieving traveler Paul Flemming.
- The Baron of Hohenfels
- The Baron of Hohenfels is a German nobleman who welcomes Paul Flemming with hospitality and conversation.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 72,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 50 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Hypérion
What is Hyperion by Longfellow about?
It follows Paul Flemming, a grieving young American, as he travels through Germany, Switzerland and Austria. He meets friends, hears legends, discusses poetry and art, and falls in love with Mary Ashburton while learning how to live with sorrow.
Is Hyperion a true story?
It is a romance, not a factual travel account. Flemming's journey brings together places, poetry, conversation and storytelling. Not every tale is an old legend.
Who is Mary Ashburton in Hyperion?
She is a young Englishwoman Flemming meets at Interlachen, with a musical voice, dark eyes and a deep love of art and nature. She and her mother are staying there for her health, and she becomes the center of his hopes.
Why is the book called Hyperion?
The name comes from the Greek Titan, a son of Heaven and Earth. In the book it suggests high purpose and noble example, as when the narrator calls great patriots sons of Heaven and Earth like Hyperion.
What is the main message of Hyperion?
The book teaches that grief should not hold a life hostage. Its conversations about friendship, art and nature ask how a person can honor sorrow without losing the present.