Tale
Peter Schlemihl
Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte
Adelbert von Chamisso · 1814
Opening lines
Nach einer glücklichen, jedoch für mich sehr beschwerlichen Seefahrt erreichten wir endlich den Hafen.
After a fortunate but, for me, very wearisome voyage, we at last reached the harbour.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
At the end of a rough crossing, Peter Schlemihl, a man without fortune, presents himself at Flensburg to the wealthy merchant Thomas John. In the garden, a stranger in a grey coat offers him, in exchange for his shadow, a purse of gold that never runs out, and he accepts. He soon discovers that a man without a shadow frightens people or makes them laugh: passers-by mock him and shun him. Taking refuge in a spa town with his faithful servant Bendel, he manages for a time to hide his infirmity, until he falls in love with the beautiful Mina.
Context
The story was written in the summer of 1813, during the wars against Napoleon, in which its author, a Frenchman by birth living in Prussia, could not take part; he wrote it partly to take his mind off things and to amuse the children of his friend Hitzig. Published in 1814, illustrated from its first edition, it was translated into most European languages. The motif of the sold shadow passed to Hoffmann, who brings Schlemihl into a story of 1815, and then to Andersen, whose tale of the shadow dates from 1847.
Who it is for
A short narrative, written first for children, which also reads as a fable about each person's place among others.
Prizes and reception
The book spread the Yiddish word schlemiel, which denotes a clumsy unlucky person, and its shadowless man has become a common reference in many countries.