Gertrude [Import] [Paperback]

Hermann Hesse (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: PENGUIN PUTNAM * TRADE; New Ed edition (June 28, 1990)
• ISBN-10: 0140180508
• ISBN-13: 978-0140180503
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) was born in Germany and later became a citizen of Switzerland. As a Western man profoundly affected by the mysticism of Eastern thought, he wrote many novels, stories, and essays that bear a vital spiritual force that has captured the imagination and loyalty of many generations of readers. In 1946, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Glass Bead Game.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A Thought-Provoking Tale of Music, Love, and Egotism", May 26, 2001

By 

"stradgirl" (Toronto, ON) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gertrude (Paperback)

Although hardly as recognized as the NARZISS AND GOLDMUND or the Novel prize winner THE GLASS BEAD GAME, GERTRUDE is one of Hermann Hesse's most beautifully written works that deserves distinction in its own right. The novel seems a rather short read at first glance, but its fast-moving nine chapters are much denser than its small volume. To fit this novel into one category would be difficult: it is a tragedy of two lovers and two friends; it is a tale of unrequited love; it is a reminiscence of a man who has matured from an indeterminate youth into adulthood; it is a testimony of the destructivity of egotism of man. This is a story of every significant aspect of a human being, that witnesses life's joys and sorrows in the most unfeigned, scrupulous way.

In a retrospective manner, the story unfolds chronologically by the main character, Kuhn. The story starts as Kuhn recollects the adolescence and early adulthood of his life in a calm, bleak tone. Kuhn is a shy, remarkably observant youth, whose life has been "tuned to one-key note and directed solely to one star": music. Despite his passion, however, his future as a musician is only in vain.

While Kuhn fritters away in depression and self-disillusionment, one day, a life-changing accident happens: one that changes the scale of life on which he lives, and it grants him the concentration and productive insight to express himself through writing his own music. It is a contradictory and rather ironic event, for it deprives him the joy of youth and yet this loss of youthful happiness becomes a path that leads him to become a productive artist. Life's sorrows and anguish transform into his main source of inspiration. One of the songs composed during that period leads him to the encounter with Muoth, the opera singer with an impetuous personality. Their relationship continually grows and deteriorates, as the story becomes increasingly complex with new characters introduced in almost every chapter.

The philosophical depth and insight into life and human nature are the trademarks of Hesse, and they do not fail to form the centrepiece of this novel either. The story is really an emotional analysis of the impact of Muoth's impulsive and agonized personality on people around him, how Muoth's egotism and ill-guided passion affect them, eventually resulting in shattering their lives. A remark casually made by Kuhn's father strikingly coincides with Muoth's character: "Youth ends when egotism does; maturity begins when one lives for others. Young people have many pleasures and many sorrows, because they only have themselves to think of, so every wish and every notion assumes importance; every pleasure is tasted to the full, but also every sorrow, and many who find that their wishes cannot be fulfilled, immediately put an end to their lives."

While the flowery prose often runs over several lines in one sentence, the sensitive writing of Hesse affords to remain clear and elegant. Kuhn's describing the impact of music on himself is one such example: "Oh, music! A melody occurs to you; you sing it silently, inwardly only; you steep your being in it; it takes possession of all your strength and emotions, and during the time it lives in you, it effaces all that is fortuitous, evil, coarse and sad in you; it brings the world into harmony with you, it makes burdens light and gives wings to the benumbed!...For each pleasing harmony of clearly combined notes...charms and delights the spirit, and the feeling in intensified with each additional note; it can at times fill the heart with joy and make it tremble with bliss as no other sensual pleasure can do."

Besides the admirably detailed descriptions of the characters and striking accounts of emotions, Hesse often exploits similes and metaphors to make the story even more vivid and beautiful; especially when talking about the relationship between Kuhn and Gertrude. As Gertrude comes up to Kuhn "as lightly as a bird and as naturally as a friend", Kuhn is drawn to Gertrude "as an early morning wanderer surrenders himself to the blue sky and the bright dew on the meadows", while the realization of his love for her is described as "the radiance and peace emerged through the raging storm of sound, revealing the light from behind the heavy clouds."

Going through a series of fateful changes in his relationships with Muoth, Gertrude, his parents, and many other characters around himself, Kuhn experiences the joy and pain of life. Kuhn learns to plunge into "the swift creative current" in which he emerges to "the free heights of feeling, where pain and bliss are no longer separate from each other."

Although the rather abrupt ending gives a feeling of insufficient resolution, the novel keeps its magnetic power to the end, leaving the reader questioning the very meaning of love and life itself. GERTRUDE, with its depth of insight and its beauty of the language, is a truly remarkable piece of literature to be enjoyed by many.

Whew, that was long... CONCLUSION: Put on some Schumann and kick back on the couch with this book..it'll take your night away!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poignant, November 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Gertrude (Paperback)

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."

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Elegant and Beautiful, September 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Gertrude (Paperback)

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.