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Translated from the German by Hilda Rosner
With characteristic insight and penetration, Hermann Hesse
explores the destructive nature of human love.As a sensitive,
disabled young composer, the narrator is drawn to a sensual
singer named Gertrude through their mutual love of music.
Gradually he becomes engulfed by an enduring and hopeless
passion for her but, because of his fear of arousing sympathy
instead of passion, he loses her. When Gertrude marries his
friend, a famous singer, he is compelled to stand by and watch
passively as their obsessive relationship disintegrates into
tragedy.
‘Gertrude is very teutonic in its music, its
agonies and its solemnity. Yet it would be a pity to miss
this book — it has such a rare flavour of truth and simplicity.’
— Stevie Smith, Observer
‘Brooding teutonic power . . . the musical detail is
extraordinarily well done.’ — Times Literary
Supplement
‘Whether or not one accepts the philosophy implicit in
this tale, there is no question of the beauty and artistry
of its telling.’ — Scotsman
Counted among the leading thinkers of the twentieth century,
HERMANN HESSE was born in 1877. Rebelling against a stern
monastic education, he worked as a locksmith and a bookseller
before embarking on a 65-year writing career. Having travelled
as far as India, he settled in Switzerland in 1911 in opposition
to German militarism. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1946, he
died in 1963 aged eighty-five. |
