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Title: Gertrude : A Novel by Herman Hesse, Hilda Rosner ISBN: 0-374-50812-7 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1969 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (15 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Elegant and Beautiful
Comment: This elegant and beautiful story is one of Hermann Hesse's very early novellas and is told in a simple, first-person narrator style.
It is the story of a man possessed by two passions: music and love. In the uncomplicated and lovely language that marks all of his works, Hesse describes with wonderful accuracy the heights and depths of romantic love and the bonds of true friendship. He falls a little short, in this book, at giving us a truly emotional look at the protagonist's passion for his music. It is in this area that the character of Kuhn, as well as that of Muoth, rings just a little false.
The pivotal character of Gertrude is beautifully drawn, but she is introduced far too late in the story for the reader to develop any sort of emotional bond with either her or her dilemma, a mistake Hesse did not repeat in his later works.
Readers who are familiar with the works of Hesse will recognize the early development of his themes of isolation and uniqueness in Gertrude in the character of Kuhn.
Like all of Hesse's works, this book is understated and restrained, yet full of emotion. The prose often feels as though there are undercurrents just about to break through the surface. Hesse, though, writes with his usual restraint and, although the book is one of obsession and tragedy, the author completely resists the temptation to let the story desolve into melodrama.
Gertrude is not Hesse's very best work, but it is certainly a lovely one and one that anyone interested in Hermann Hesse cannot afford to miss.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Note of Caution to All Prospective Readers:
Comment: It is all too easy to come away from Gertrude, Hesse's earliest fictional memoir, unchanged. Although all will undoubtedly be touched on some level by at least a few of the poignant, youthful anecdotes with which the novel abounds, one should nevertheless resist the temptation to write it off as another "touching story of humanity."* Beneath the heavy sentimentality and beyond the short-winded elations of men, at the heart of the novel, is the idea that pleasure and pain arise from the same source and are aspects of the same force. With this view, the story of a crippled composer, Kuhn, and his unrequited love for Gertrude takes on an expository tone, delving at points into the very nature of pleasure and pain themselves. With that in mind, enjoy the novel and the experience and take full advantage of the multitude of opportunities Hesse affords you to contemplate the nature of these basic, human concepts.
* I quote reviewer "Savygal007" (who apparently maintains the interpretation I caution against)
Rating: 4
Summary: Poignant
Comment: After reading, "Demian," "Narcissus and Goldmund", "Siddharta," and "Beneath The Wheel," it was a pleasant surprise to read something "light" from Hermann Hesse. Don't get me wrong. Even with the simple plot and autobigraphical narration of Kuhn, Hesse's philosophies pervade, especially on love, wisdom and growing old.
"Gertrude" is a story about desires. Kuhn's desires to have his leg back, to live without loneliness, even a desire to change fate itself. All of these desires become centered in Gertrude Imothor whom he befriends and falls in love with as Kuhn was slowly rising in prominence as a composer. While Kuhn works on his opera, his friends, Muoth and Gertrude, fall in love. Finding about the affair, Kuhn becomes devastated but was soon distracted by a telegram sent about his ailing father. His father's death brings Kuhn back to the advice that he gave him the past summer. With renewed vigor, he accepts his fate and even composes a prelude for Muoth and Gertrude's wedding. Kuhn's opera becomes a success while Muoth and Gertrude's marriage crumbles. Gertrude, Muoth and Kuhn's desires interweave and create the tragic results to which all of them learn from.
In the end, Kuhn learns from his experiences and even comes to accept his fate, as he relates in this passage:
"Fate was not kind, life was capricious and terrible, and there was no good or reason with nature. But there is good and reason in us, in human beings, with whom fortune plays, and we can be stronger than nature and fate, if only for a few hours. And we can draw close to one another in times of need, understand and love one another and live to comfort each other."
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Title: Rosshalde by Hermann Hesse, Ralph Manheim ISBN: 0312422296 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Demian by Hermann Hesse ISBN: 0060931914 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Beneath the Wheel by Hermann Hesse, Michael Roloff ISBN: 031242230X Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Peter Camenzind by Hermann Hesse, Michael Roloff ISBN: 0374507848 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: September, 1988 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Steppenwolf: A Novel by Hermann Hesse, Basil Creighton ISBN: 0312278675 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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