Peter Camenzind

by Hermann Hesse

Book Overview

Peter Camenzind, a young man from a Swiss mountain village, leaves his home and eagerly takes to the road in search of new experience. Traveling through Italy and France, Camenzind is increasingly disillusioned by the suffering he finds around him; after failed romances and a tragic friendship, his idealism fades into crushing hopelessness. He finds peace again only when he cares for Boppi, an invalid who renews Camenzind's love for humanity and inspires...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374507848
• ISBN13: 9780374507848
• Release Date: October 1988
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Perhaps the place to start?

Those who want to only invest their time in an author's choicest works would probably skip ahead, in Hesse's case, to Demian, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and Magister Ludi. Those are titles I read years ago, and though their impressions are no longer fresh, I remember them as masterpieces. If you are a serious Hesse admirer, you will lose nothing by reading Peter Caminzind, and will gain added perspective on his later works through this expression of his early development as writer and metaphysician. Written when the author was 27, this was his first novel. This is a very easy book to read, but is by no means a shallow one. It is a book of great strengths but also, I think, some serious weaknesses. If this were the only book Hesse had written, I would still consider him a great writer. Because the style and clarity of the book make for such ease of reading, it is essential to take some time with its descriptions of nature, which are very poetic and beautiful. I think the imagery conjured up by Hesse's prose is as effective, or even more so, as formal poetry which has the same intent. This is a book which truly pays homage to nature and seeks to elicit the same appreciation for it that the author feels. This notion that there is a need for us to feel a love of nature - mountains, meadows, clouds, streams, lakes, weather - is a major theme of the book, every bit as pronounced as the coming-of-age theme. The insistence is there that we experience this love in a deep spiritual way, not through mere sentimentality. This need to experience a profound relationship to nature is tied closely to the protagonist's search for his own spiritual identity. He senses that his need to express love is incomplete, and as he progresses through his youth and young adulthood, he comes to realize he must extend this love to people. His upbringing in an isolated mountain village has instilled in him traits which are the very opposite of gregariousness and empathy for fellow man. The novel is the chronicle of the struggles and torments Camenzind suffers in evolving toward a state of mind where he can shed his aloofness, disdain, and mistrust of humanity. One thing that helps him to forge a link to mankind is his secret desire to compose a great poetic work which will show the rest of humanity how to love nature as he does. In the novel this remains a future prospect , but he does begin to reach out for love and friendship by abandoning the intellectual society he had frequented, and seeking a more common human bond. He finds this through taking care of real human needs for others. There are many passages in the book which I find moving, beautiful, and profound, and which caused me to pause in my reading to reflect on them before moving on. But the main weakness which I see in this novel is that it is so internalized, that sometimes the states of mind it describes seem to be rather arbitrary and based more on subjective moods than causes the reader can relate to. The hero de

Find leitmotive of Hess from this early work

Peter Camenzind is the earliest fictional work of Great Hermann Hesse who has been always one of my favirite authors. I have read Hesse works in reverse choronological order. In comparison to his later works such as Magister Ludi, the plot and prose style are unrefined ,yet they are unadulterated as well as contains leitmotives that Hesse recurs consistently in his later works. The story is very simple and follows a typical pattern of Bildungsroman, e.i a youth finds his purpose of life and identity through a vissitude of life. In case of Peter, it's quite a journey .Story begins with quintesential Hessian phrase ""In the beginning was the myth. God, in his search for self-expression, invested the souls of Hindus, Greeks, and Germans with poetic shapes and continues to invest each child's soul with poetry every day". Peter left his alphine hometown for searching for the world with an aspiration to become a poet. He meets Richard and shares intense friendship with him ,while hopelessly fell for a woman who teaches first pain of unrequited love. After the tragic death of Richard and a series of unrequited love as well as his journey to Italy, Peter a bit by bit understands the meaing life and nature of love. Each episode clearly shows different aspects of love and when it comes to his devotion to Boppi , it shows to where Hesse's love finally directed. Throughout this book, spritual crisis and overcoming that very crisis not only widens Peter's view on life and but also encourages him to find the ultimate meaning of life which poem is only a medium of representation. I am especially moved by Peter's devotion for Boppi that is not originated from mere pity but Peter's love for humanity. There are distinctive influence of Plato, Schopenhauer , and Nietzche's philosophies which slowly supplanted by Indian and Chinese philosophy in his later works. this is perhaps only novel that makes you experience all vissitude of life within a couple hours of reading.It's worth reading and you won't regret.

One of Hesse's best works!

I love this novel so much. The very first paragraph gripped me and made me feel very small in a great way. Hesse's description of the mountain range that forms the character of Peter Camenzind is stunning. Like most of Hesse's work, this is a tale of travel and growth of a wandering soul searching for something meaningful. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes truly crafted literature.

A novel about youth: idealism and romanticism

Hesse's first book is an enjoyable novel about youth in search of the ideal and touched by the romantic. Written by Hesse in 1904 when he was 26, it is a precursor to his famous works. In Peter Camenzind, Hesse reveals a naivety, innocence and humor that is rarely found in his later writings. Here is an excerpt that relects the lyrical quality of young Hesse: "These thoughtless words made me realize that the helpless cripple, beseeching, suffering Boppi, whom we did not love, whom we wanted to get rid of, sat sad and alone, locked in one room....And then I remembered that I had told the neighbors in Assisi about St. Francis and had boasted that he had taught me to love all mankind. Why had I studied the saint's life and learned by heart his hymn to love and tried to retrace his footsteps in the Umbrian hills, when I allowed a poor and helpless creature to lay there suffering though I could help him? The weight of an invisible, mighty hand fell on my heart, crushing it with shame and hurt, and I began to tremble. I know that God wanted a word with me."

Unforgettable

I've read all works of Hesse that I could find during my teenage years. I read them not as books but as a starving person would devour delicious food.I have not yet encountered another book (Hesse or not) that is as striking as Peter Camerzind. That's partly because I had some tough times during my teenage years and in Peter C. Hesse is 100% realistic to me. It's been 12-13 years that I had not read Hesse again with maybe with one or two exceptions. As I said before, I read Hesse when I was a teenager and I had no intentions to analyze, criticize or whatever ! There are too many people who go into to analytical descriptions of Hesse's works. Don't do it. I do not think that Hesse's works are intellectual. I doubt he is after anything intellectual, rational or analytical. It could be the opposite ! Forget about the feeling you had while reading, do you think a wolf wandering in the steppes would philosophize ?I felt Peter Camerzind deep in my heart. That's all I have to say.