22 h 10 minAudiobook4 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 does it cost to make music of your own when a whole city expects you to belong?
In Nuremberg, among church spires, narrow lanes and craftsmen, Daniel Nothafft dreams of composing music that is truly his own. But this young musician faces pressure from family and town, while his hunger for love and freedom makes his struggle more than a question of art.
In The Goose Man, Jakob Wassermann asks what a person owes to a community—and what he owes to himself. His patient storytelling gives people and places room to unfold. As feeling builds through detail, Daniel’s pursuit of his gift brings talent and duty into conflict.
What you’ll discover
- A city with expectations Enter a Nuremberg of walls, churches and fountains, shaped by craft and civic pride.
- Music on his own terms Follow Daniel’s wish to compose something his own, whatever the town expects of him.
- The pull of duty Consider where loyalty to a community ends and loyalty to yourself begins.
- Love alongside ambition Discover an artist whose need for love and freedom presses alongside his musical hopes.
- Room for feeling Settle into a slower story that lets people, places and emotions gather weight.
Who will love it
For readers who love novels about artists, music and the pull between talent and duty, and anyone curious about German life before the First World War.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A city of old stone and old rules
- A young composer sets out to be himself
- What the story is really about
- How the novel is told
Who’s who
- Daniel NothafftA young composer in Nuremberg who wants to create music that is truly his own, whatever the town expects of him.
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The Goose Man
by Jakob Wassermann · 1915
In Nuremberg, composer Daniel Nothafft fights to make music of his own amid the pressures of family, town and love.
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In short
The Goose Man is a novel by Jakob Wassermann, published in German in 1915. It is set in Nuremberg, the old Bavarian city of church spires, narrow lanes and craftsmen.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A city of old stone and old rules
The novel takes place in Nuremberg, a city with a long memory. Its walls, churches and fountains speak of centuries of trade, craft and civic pride. The title comes from a well-known fountain there, a bronze figure of a peasant carrying a goose under each arm, made in the sixteenth century. Locals treat it as a kind of friendly emblem of the town.
Wassermann uses this setting as more than scenery. A city so full of tradition can feel like a home, and it can also feel like a cage. Everyone knows their place, and everyone knows everyone else's business. For a young person with a rare talent, such a place is both a source of strength and a weight on the shoulders.
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What is The Goose Man about?
It is a novel about Daniel Nothafft, a young composer in Nuremberg, and his struggle to follow his gift. Love, family and the pressures of an old, tradition-bound city all shape the path he takes.
Who wrote The Goose Man and when?
Jakob Wassermann wrote it. The novel appeared in German in 1915, under the title Das Gänsemännchen, a few years before the author became widely read across Europe.
What does the goose man mean in the title?
It refers to a famous bronze fountain figure in Nuremberg, a peasant carrying two geese. The statue is a local emblem, and in the novel it stands for the town's humble, lasting character.
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.
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