The Story of Mr Sommer

Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer
The Story of Mr Sommer
First edition of the book
AuthorPatrick Süskind
TranslatorMichael Hofmann
Cover artistJean-Jacques Sempé
LanguageGerman
GenreNovella with autobiographical elements
Set infictional village in Germany, 1950s
Publisher
Publication date
1991
Media type

The Story of Mr Sommer (Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer) is a novella in German by Patrick Süskind, published in 1991, dealing with memories of childhood in a village in Germany. The book was illustrated by Jean-Jacques Sempé. It was translated into English by Michael Hofmann.

History

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After Süskind had written Perfume about a serial killer in 1985,[1][2] and The Pigeon as a kafkaesque story in 1987, he turned to a boy's childhood memories in Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer. The book is related to the author's own childhood in a village on Lake Starnberg, reviewed at around age 40.[3][4][5] Jeffrey Adams, a scholar of media studies, described it as "a children's tale for adults" in its entry in The Literary Encyclopedia.[6]

The book was richly illustrated by drawings by Jean-Jacques Sempé,[7] and published by Diogenes in Zürich in 1991. A translation into English by Michael Hofmann, The Story of Mr Sommer, was first published by Fox, Finch & Tepper in Bath.[8] It was published by Bloomsbury Publishing as a paperback in 2003.

Plot and themes

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Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer is told in the first person by a man aged around 40, remembering growing up in a fictional village in Germany after World War II.[4] The narration features elements reminiscent of fairy-tales of the Brothers Grimm,[6] such as the boy being sure he could fly if only he was determined enough.[8] It is written as if told spontaneously,[9] described as a "beguiling, unsentimental account of childhood in rural Germany"[8] of a "clever, imaginative, logical and lonely little boy".[8] He remembers living away from other children, being attracted to his classmate Carolina, and enduring piano lessons that he reached riding his mother's bike, too large for him.[8]

The narrator meets an unusual man, Herr Sommer, who is described as from the same village where the boy lives but on restless permanent wanderings (Wanderschaft),[10] from early morning until late at night.[5] Three meetings are described in detail. The first occurs during a terrible storm and hail when the boy and his father, returning from a horse race by car, offer him a ride, and he utters the only spoken phrase quoted in the book: "Ja so laßt mich doch endlich in Frieden!" ("Why don’t you just leave me in peace!").[5][8][10] The boy meets him again, watching from a high tree which he climbed with the idea of ending his life by jumping; Mr Sommer unusually interrupts his walk, lies down in the grass and lets go a gruesome long groan ("a hollow anguished sound from deep within his chest")[8] that makes the boy forget his intentions.[5] In the end, the boy watches the man walk into the lake where he drowns, as Ludwig II of Bavaria died. The boy keeps it to himself.[3][5][7]

Publication

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  • Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer. Mit Bildern von Sempé. Diogenes, Zürich 1991, ISBN 3-257-01895-9. (first edition)
  • Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer. Mit Bildern von Sempé. Diogenes, Zürich 1994, ISBN 3-257-22664-0. (paperback)
  • The Story of Mr Sommer. translated by Michael Hofmann, Fox, Finch & Tepper, ISBN 978-0-99-304672-8
  • The Story of Mr Sommer. Bloomsbury Publishing 2003, ISBN 0-7475-6675-5 (paperback)
  • Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer. Mit Bildern von Sempé. Diogenes, Zürich 2012, ISBN 978-3-257-05728-7. (new edition)
  • Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer. 2 audio CDs, read by Hans Korte. Diogenes, Zürich 2006, ISBN 3-257-80017-7. (audio book)

References

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  1. ^ Gray, Richard T. (1993). "The Dialectic of "Enscentment": Patrick Süskind's Das Parfum as Critical History of Enlightenment Culture". PMLA. 108 (3): 489–505. doi:10.2307/462617. ISSN 0030-8129. JSTOR 462617.
  2. ^ Pike, Laurie (2013-11-04). "'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' to Reshow With Newly Created Scent Track". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  3. ^ a b Der Spiegel 1991.
  4. ^ a b Julin 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e Dresler 2022.
  6. ^ a b Adams 2005.
  7. ^ a b Zimmermann 2004.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Battersby 2015.
  9. ^ Wunderlich 2002.
  10. ^ a b Bopp 2012.

Cited sources

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