2 h 37 minAudiobook10 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 2 h 37 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
On the road, a mistaken identity can tangle a romance—and a restless heart can make matters worse.
Wanderings, a comic novel attributed to Friedrich Gerstäcker, brings together mistaken identity, romantic misadventure and the pull of travel. People leave home, meet strangers and discover that things are not what they seem. Roads, inns and chance meetings form the setting for a light, humane look at love and error.
Gerstäcker’s experience as a traveller shapes the world behind this story. The pleasures lie in lively places, uncertain appearances and hearts that struggle to settle. Mistaken identity gives the comedy its spark, while romantic confusion raises a quieter question: how do people tell passing admiration from real affection?
What you’ll discover
- The comedy of error Discover the comic possibilities of people being taken for someone they are not.
- Hearts on the move Explore romantic uncertainty, where admiration, habit and affection can be hard to separate.
- Roads and chance meetings Step into a world of inns and strangers, where appearances invite a second look.
- A traveller’s eye Notice how roads, lodgings and landscapes help give the story its changing moods.
- Warmth beneath the humour Enjoy a gentle view of restless people and the errors that complicate love.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy light comedy, railway and steamboat journeys, spa towns and cheerful muddles, and anyone who has ever been told they look just like somebody else.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A father decides his son must travel
- A charming stranger on the train
- A madhouse in Mainz and a gambling hall in Ems
- Cologne, a wrong family and a girl in trouble
- A wrong accusation and a poor major
- Faces, names and what we assume
Who’s who
- Fritz WesselA good-natured portrait painter of twenty-eight with a face strangers confuse with others, who travels up the Rhine to please his father and finds trouble.
- Councilor WesselFritz's father, a senior town official in Hassburg, who sends his easygoing son travelling in the hope that he will grow up and settle down.
- Klaus BeldorfFritz's old schoolmate, who has found a fiancée on the Rhine and warns his friend not to flirt with her.
- OlgaA charming young woman on the train, with a silvery voice and her own cigars, who wins Fritz's heart at first sight.
- Dr. RaspeA respected doctor in Mainz and an old acquaintance of Fritz's father, who has two daughters and a dry way of speaking.
- ViolaThe doctor's quick-tempered younger daughter, who suspects Fritz of lying and speaks her mind without fear.
- MargaretA quiet young companion left stranded in a Cologne hotel, who bears hardship without complaint and cares deeply for her father.
- Major von ButtenholtA proud retired soldier and old friend of Fritz's father, living in poverty and paying off the debts of his late son.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 2 h 37 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 10 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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Wanderings
Fritz Wessel, a painter with an ordinary face, gets slapped, searched and arrested as he wanders the Rhine.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Wanderings is a comic novel by Friedrich Gerstäcker, a German writer who died in 1872. It follows Fritz Wessel, a portrait painter of twenty-eight, who owns a face that every stranger seems to know.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A father decides his son must travel
The story opens in the house of Councilor Wessel, a senior town official in Hassburg. His son Fritz sits at breakfast with coffee, a cigar and a newspaper, quite happy with life. Fritz is a popular portrait painter, especially of children, and he has never worried about anything. His father paces the room with a long pipe and finally speaks. A night watchman has been beaten and the glass face of the town hall clock has been shot to pieces, and two watchmen swear that Fritz did it.
Fritz denies everything and offers his own explanation. He has such an ordinary face that strangers take him for other people all the time. Ushers wave him into theaters, and a man in Berlin even asked him to pay a bill that belonged to somebody else. His father half believes him, but he has made up his mind anyway. Fritz is lazy by nature, he says, and needs to learn about the seriousness of life. The cure is travel, and in time perhaps a wife.
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What is Wanderings by Friedrich Gerstäcker about?
It is a comic novel about Fritz Wessel, a painter whose father sends him up the Rhine to find a wife. His ordinary face makes strangers mistake him for others, and he lands in trouble at every stop.
Who is Fritz Wessel in Wanderings?
Fritz is a portrait painter of twenty-eight from Hassburg, known for his pictures of children. He is kind, easygoing and a little lazy, and he is always being taken for somebody else because of his ordinary face.
Why does everyone mistake Fritz for someone else?
Fritz says he has such an ordinary face that it suits any disguise. Strangers greet him by other names, the police suspect him, and a thief using his name adds to the confusion. The mix-ups drive the whole story.
The author
Friedrich Gerstäcker
1816–1872 · German novelist and travel writer
Friedrich Gerstäcker was a German novelist and travel writer. He was born in Hamburg in 1816 and died in Braunschweig in 1872. He travelled in the United States from 1837 to 1843. His books include The Regulators of Arkansas (1846) and The River Pirates of the Mississippi (1848).
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