Klingsor's Last Summer
Encyclopedia
Klingsor's Last Summer is a novella
by Hermann Hesse
.
Written over the course of a few weeks in July and August 1919, it was published in December 1919 in the Deutsche Rundschau
. It was later published (by Samuel Fischer) in a volume which included Kinderseele and Klein und Wagner.
The story is an account of the final months of the life of Klingsor, a forty-two-year-old expressionist painter. A lover of poetry, a heavy drinker and a womanizer, he spends his final summer in southern Italy, torn between sensuality and spirituality and troubled by feelings of impending death.
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
by Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature...
.
Written over the course of a few weeks in July and August 1919, it was published in December 1919 in the Deutsche Rundschau
Deutsche Rundschau
Deutsche Rundschau is a literary and political periodical established in 1874 by Julius Rodenberg.Deutsche Rundschau strongly influenced German politics, literature and culture. It was considered one of the most successful launches of periodicals in Germany...
. It was later published (by Samuel Fischer) in a volume which included Kinderseele and Klein und Wagner.
The story is an account of the final months of the life of Klingsor, a forty-two-year-old expressionist painter. A lover of poetry, a heavy drinker and a womanizer, he spends his final summer in southern Italy, torn between sensuality and spirituality and troubled by feelings of impending death.
Character List
- Klingsor
- Louis the cruel
- Ersilia
- The Queen of the mountains
- The Armenian astrologer
- Edith