Peter Schlemiel
Encyclopedia
Peter Schlemihl is the title character of an 1814 novel, Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (Peter Schlemihl's Remarkable Story), written in German by exiled French aristocrat Adelbert von Chamisso
. In the story, Schlemihl sells his shadow
to the Devil
for a bottomless wallet, only to find that a man without a shadow is shunned by human society. The woman he loves rejects him, and he spends the rest of his life wandering the world in scientific exploration.
The Yiddish word Schlemiel—and its Hebrew cognate Shlumi'el—mean a hopelessly incompetent person, a bungler. Consequently, the name is a synonym
of one who makes a desperate or silly bargain.
's 1847 fairy tale
The Shadow
, the main character loses his shadow on a journey, and is afraid of being taken as an imitator if he tells his story.
The story is alluded to in Karl Marx
's 1851 essay, "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon
".
Ernest Gellner
in Nations and Nationalism uses Chamisso's story as a metaphor of a man wthout a shadow.
In the third act of Jacques Offenbach
's 1881 opera
, The Tales of Hoffmann, the character Peter Schlémil has also given up his shadow.
The story is referred to by Ludwig Wittgenstein
in his Philosophical Investigations
(Section 339), published posthumously in 1953.
The story was performed on American television, in a 1953 episode of Favorite Story, starring DeForest Kelley
as the title character.
In Robertson Davies
' 1972 novel The Manticore
, the story is referred to by the character Dr. Von Haller, in a discussion about the significance of losing one's shadow.
In the title of the first chapter of Thomas Pynchon
's novel, V.
, the character Benny Profane is referred to as a "schlemihl and human yo-yo."
Oscar Wilde
's "The Fisherman and his Soul" demonstrates a familiarity with the story. In the Wilde story, however, the fisherman does not sell his soul, but cuts it from him with a magic knife and leaves it to wander the world.
The character Peter Schlemihl is referenced by Imre Kertész
in his 2003 novel Liquidation (Felszámolás).
Georges Schwizgebel
's 2004 paint-on-glass animation
L'Homme sans ombre (The Man With No Shadow) portrays a slight variation on the original story: after being rejected by his lover and society, the main character returns to the devil. Rather than getting back his shadow, he trades his riches for a pair of Seven-league boots
and travels the world in search of a place where he will be accepted without a shadow. In the end, he becomes a Wayang
shadow puppeteer in Indonesia because he can manipulate the puppets directly without affecting their silhouettes.
Adelbert von Chamisso
Adelbert von Chamisso was a German poet and botanist.- Life :He was born Louis Charles Adélaïde de Chamissot at the château of Boncourt at Ante, in Champagne, France, the ancestral seat of his family...
. In the story, Schlemihl sells his shadow
Shadow
A shadow is an area where direct light from a light source cannot reach due to obstruction by an object. It occupies all of the space behind an opaque object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, or reverse projection of the object blocking the...
to the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
for a bottomless wallet, only to find that a man without a shadow is shunned by human society. The woman he loves rejects him, and he spends the rest of his life wandering the world in scientific exploration.
The Yiddish word Schlemiel—and its Hebrew cognate Shlumi'el—mean a hopelessly incompetent person, a bungler. Consequently, the name is a synonym
Synonym
Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
of one who makes a desperate or silly bargain.
Reception and cultural influence
The story, intended for children, was widely read and the character became a common cultural reference in many countries. People generally remembered the element of the shadow better than how the story ended, simplifying Chamisso's lesson to "don't sell your shadow to the Devil."Later retellings
In Hans Christian AndersenHans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
's 1847 fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
The Shadow
The Shadow (fairy tale)
"The Shadow" is a fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The tale was first published in 1847.- Plot summary :Once a learned man from the northern regions of Europe went on a voyage south. One night, he sat on his terrace, while the fire behind him cast his shadow on the...
, the main character loses his shadow on a journey, and is afraid of being taken as an imitator if he tells his story.
The story is alluded to in Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
's 1851 essay, "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon
Der 18te Brumaire des Louis Napoleon was written by Karl Marx between December 1851 and March 1852, and originally published in 1852 in Die Revolution, a German-language monthly magazine published in New York and established by Joseph Weydemeyer...
".
Ernest Gellner
Ernest Gellner
Ernest André Gellner was a philosopher and social anthropologist, described by The Daily Telegraph when he died as one of the world's most vigorous intellectuals and by The Independent as a "one-man crusade for critical rationalism."His first book, Words and Things —famously, and uniquely...
in Nations and Nationalism uses Chamisso's story as a metaphor of a man wthout a shadow.
In the third act of Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's 1881 opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, The Tales of Hoffmann, the character Peter Schlémil has also given up his shadow.
The story is referred to by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
in his Philosophical Investigations
Philosophical Investigations
Philosophical Investigations is, along with the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, one of the most influential works by the 20th-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein...
(Section 339), published posthumously in 1953.
The story was performed on American television, in a 1953 episode of Favorite Story, starring DeForest Kelley
DeForest Kelley
Jackson DeForest Kelley was an American actor known for his iconic roles in Westerns and as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television and film series Star Trek.-Early life:...
as the title character.
In Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies, CC, OOnt, FRSC, FRSL was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best-known and most popular authors, and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies is variously said to have gladly accepted for himself...
' 1972 novel The Manticore
The Manticore
The Manticore is the second novel in Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy.Published in 1972 by Macmillan of Canada, it deals with the aftermath of the mysterious death of Percy Boyd "Boy" Staunton retold during a series of conversations between Staunton's son and a Jungian psychoanalyst.The title...
, the story is referred to by the character Dr. Von Haller, in a discussion about the significance of losing one's shadow.
In the title of the first chapter of Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
's novel, V.
V.
V. is the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon, published in 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveller named...
, the character Benny Profane is referred to as a "schlemihl and human yo-yo."
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's "The Fisherman and his Soul" demonstrates a familiarity with the story. In the Wilde story, however, the fisherman does not sell his soul, but cuts it from him with a magic knife and leaves it to wander the world.
The character Peter Schlemihl is referenced by Imre Kertész
Imre Kertész
Imre Kertész is a Hungarian Jewish author, Holocaust concentration camp survivor, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002 "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"....
in his 2003 novel Liquidation (Felszámolás).
Georges Schwizgebel
Georges Schwizgebel
Georges Schwizgebel is a Swiss animation film director whose paint-on-glass-animated 2004 film L'Homme sans ombre won various awards....
's 2004 paint-on-glass animation
Paint-on-glass animation
Paint-on-glass animation is a technique for making animated films by manipulating slow-drying oil paints on sheets of glass. Gouache mixed with glycerine is sometimes used instead...
L'Homme sans ombre (The Man With No Shadow) portrays a slight variation on the original story: after being rejected by his lover and society, the main character returns to the devil. Rather than getting back his shadow, he trades his riches for a pair of Seven-league boots
Seven-league boots
Seven-league boots are an element in European folklore. The boots allow the wearer to take great strides—seven leagues each step—resulting in great speed. The boots are often presented by a magical character to the protagonist to aid in the completion of a significant task...
and travels the world in search of a place where he will be accepted without a shadow. In the end, he becomes a Wayang
Wayang
Wayang is a Javanese word for theatre . When the term is used to refer to kinds of puppet theatre, sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as wayang...
shadow puppeteer in Indonesia because he can manipulate the puppets directly without affecting their silhouettes.
Editions
- Adelbert von Chamisso: Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte. With 25 two-tone illustrations by Franziska Walther. Kunstanstifter Verlag, Mannheim, 2011, ISBN 978-3-942795-00-5.
External links
- "The Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl" at michaelhaldane.com
- Translation at Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
with George CruikshankGeorge CruikshankGeorge Cruikshank was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.-Early life:Cruikshank was born in London...
's illustrations