7 h 52 minAudiobook7 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
Who do you become when the need to belong pulls against the person you hope to be?
In Jakob Wassermann’s Engelhart Ratgeber, Engelhart is a young man who grows through experience, admiration and disappointment. He wants recognition. He wants to be loved. As ambition meets doubt, the search for a place in the world becomes a search for himself—and for the kind of person he wants to become.
This coming-of-age novel belongs to the German tradition of the Bildungsroman, where experience shapes a young person’s character. Its backdrop is the changing world of Europe around 1900, as old certainties fade. Between inner longing and the demands of society, Engelhart faces the question of how to find his own way.
What you’ll discover
- A self taking shape Follow a young man whose encounters with others help shape his sense of himself.
- The hunger for recognition Explore the ambition of someone who wants to become somebody and be seen.
- The longing for love Meet the desire to be loved alongside the wish to find a place.
- Admiration and disappointment Discover how people admired, and people who disappoint, become part of growing up.
- A world losing certainty Consider a search for identity against a setting where familiar certainties begin to fade.
Who will love it
Readers who love an inward, absorbing story of growing up, with rich pictures of old German towns, and who care about friendship, ambition, family sorrow and a young person's longing to become himself.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A child of fire, fear and fantasy
- Small injustices and a first sense of death
- Summer in Gunzenhausen and the word Jew
- A mother's illness and a changed home
- Cruelty at home and the friend in the woods
- Summer love, a fire and a sentence of exile
- Vienna, Würzburg and the barracks
- The cellar circle, a friend and a cold employer
- What the story is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Engelhart RatgeberA dreamy, sensitive Jewish boy from Fürth who longs to be understood and to find a purpose, yet struggles with work, honesty and trust.
- Mr. RatgeberEngelhart's father, an anxious small trader and later factory owner who chases wealth and respect and cannot reach his son.
- Agathe RatgeberEngelhart's beautiful, quiet and sad mother, who dreams of freedom from worry.
- Michael HerzThe wealthy Vienna uncle, a refined, easily angered man who wants Engelhart to carry on his business and wishes him well in his own way.
- Justin SchildknechtA shy, restless draftsman from Nuremberg who becomes Engelhart's closest friend and dreams of art but is held back by his own fears.
- Ernestine KirchnerThe warm and clear sighted shipping clerk in Vienna who listens to Engelhart and offers him tenderness.
- Benedikt KnollA sharp tongued student who plays mentor to Engelhart and mocks dreams, while hiding his own Jewish roots.
- Peter PalmA bitter, brilliant student and self styled confessor of the doomed who leads a circle of drinking and denial.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 52 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 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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Engelhart Ratgeber
by Jakob Wassermann · 1905
A dreamy Franconian boy, shut out by home and school, wanders from city to city in search of his own voice.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A boy stares at a column of fire at the end of a Franconian street, and a whole life begins to burn. Engelhart Ratgeber is Jakob Wassermann's coming-of-age novel set in the German empire of the late nineteenth century.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A child of fire, fear and fantasy
The novel opens with Engelhart's earliest memory. His mother sits at a window, and the boy sees a tall column of fire at the end of the street. The next day he sets a toy house alight and is beaten for it. He is a child thrilled and frightened by the same things.
His home sits above a tavern, and every week a pig is slaughtered in the building. The death shriek terrifies him so much that he hides in a wardrobe full of clothes. The maid Ketti tells him folk tales by the stove, and he comes to believe he is of royal birth.
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What is Engelhart Ratgeber about?
It follows a sensitive Jewish boy in Franconia from his first memories to early adulthood. He faces a stern father, a cold stepmother, rigid schools, army life and uncertain friendships while searching for a purpose and for understanding.
Who is Justin Schildknecht in the novel?
He is a shy, restless draftsman from Nuremberg who becomes Engelhart's closest friend. He urges Engelhart to leave a destructive circle and to trust himself, yet his own fears and money troubles shape their bond.
What is the story of Jackele Cat-Fur?
It is a fairy tale Engelhart tells his brother Abel about a shepherd boy who loses his geese and chooses a bleeding heart over riches and knowledge. It mirrors the whole novel's theme of feeling against practical life.
The author
Jakob Wassermann
1873–1934 · German novelist
Jakob Wassermann (1873–1934) was a German novelist born in Fürth, Germany. He lived in Munich, Vienna, and Altaussee, Austria, where he died. His novels include Caspar Hauser (1908), The Goose Man (1915), and The Maurizius Case (1928). He also wrote short fiction and essays.
More by Jakob Wassermann
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