The Prodigy.

HESSE, Herman; Translated by W.J. Strachan.

$750.00

Item Number: 32054

London: Peter Owen and The Vision Press, 1957.

First edition in English of the author’s classic work. Octavo, original cloth. Translated by W.J. Strachan. Inscribed by the translator W.J. Strachan on the front free endpaper in the year of publication, “To Pat Cullen who will appreciate that this sad tale has not lost its point even today- affectionately from Walker August 1957 Also in gratitude for advice in some royalty points.” Also, signed by Strachan on the title page. Near fine in the rare original dust jacket with some wear. Rare signed and inscribed.

The Prodigy, originally dating from 1905, is Hermann Hesses's bitter indictment of conventional education. It is the story of Hans Giebenrath, the brilliant young son of provincial bourgeouis in southern Germany who becomes the first boy from his town to pass into a prestigious Protestant theological college. His spirit, however, is systematically broken by his parents and teachers; over anxious about his success, they forget to consider his health and happiness. Subsiding into a fatal apathy, he is taken home for medical reasons. Here he falls in love, becomes an engineer's apprentice, learns to drink alcohol, and eventually dies by drowning. Out of his attitude to the treatment that he perceived was common within the German schooling system at the turn of the century, Hesse developed his own deeply personal views on the value of Eastern education in developing the self. "It is unusual for a writer to begin with sincerity alone and to advance to a more complex apprehension of life without surrendering his pristine innocence. This has been Hermann Hesse’s achievement" (Observer).