The Story of Mr Sommer

Template:Short description Template:Template otherTemplate:Wikidata image 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

After Süskind had written Perfume about a serial killer in 1985, 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.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Jeffrey Adams, a scholar of media studies, described it as "a children's tale for adults" in its entry in The Literary Encyclopedia.Template:Sfn

The book was richly illustrated by drawings by Jean-Jacques Sempé,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn It was published by Bloomsbury Publishing as a paperback in 2003.

Plot and themes

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.Template:Sfn The narration features elements reminiscent of fairy-tales of the Brothers Grimm,Template:Sfn such as the boy being sure he could fly if only he was determined enough.Template:Sfn It is written as if told spontaneously,Template:Sfn described as a "beguiling, unsentimental account of childhood in rural Germany"Template:Sfn of a "clever, imaginative, logical and lonely little boy".Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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),Template:Sfn from early morning until late at night.Template:Sfn 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!").Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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")Template:Sfn that makes the boy forget his intentions.Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Publication

• 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, Template:ISBN
• The Story of Mr Sommer. Bloomsbury Publishing 2003, Template:ISBN (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)

External links

• Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer (in German) Diogenes 1993