Author | Heinrich Hoffmann |
---|---|
Working title | Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder mit 15 schön kolorierten Tafeln für Kinder von 3–6 Jahren |
Illustrator | Heinrich Hoffmann |
Language | German |
Subject | Cautionary tales |
Genre | Children's book |
Published | 1845 |
Publication date | October 1845 |
Publication place | Free City of Frankfurt (Part of German Confederation) (1845) German Empire (1917 Edition) |
Followed by | König Nussknacker und der arme Reinhold |
Der Struwwelpeter ("shock-headed Peter") [1] is an 1845 German children's book written and illustrated by Heinrich Hoffmann. It comprises ten illustrated and rhymed stories, mostly about children. Each cautionary tale has a clear moral lesson that demonstrates the disastrous consequences of misbehavior in an exaggerated way. [2] The title of the first story provides the title of the whole book. Der Struwwelpeter is one of the earliest books for children that combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, and is considered a precursor to comic books. [3]
Der Struwwelpeter is known for introducing the villainous character of the Tailor (or Scissorman) to Western literature. Some researchers now see the stories in the book as illustrations of modern child mental disorders. [4]
Hoffmann wrote the book that would later be titled Struwwelpeter in reaction to what he perceived as a lack of good books for children. Intending to buy a picture book as a Christmas present for his three-year-old son, Hoffmann instead wrote and illustrated his own book. [1] [5] At the time of producing it, Hoffmann had no intentions of publishing his book. [1]
The first appearance of Hoffmann's book outside his immediate family circle was in a meeting organized by Frankfurt literary club Tutti Frutti Society (Gesellschaft der Tutti-Frutti) on 18 January 1845. On the evening of that day, Zacharias Löwenthal, a co-founder of publishing company Literarische Anstalt, bought Hoffmann's book for 80 gulden. Hoffmann later wrote that "[in] that night, at 11 o'clock, I had, almost without knowing what I had done, suddenly become an author of juvenile books." [1]
The book first appeared in the Frankfurt marketplace in October of that year under the title Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder mit 15 schön kolorierten Tafeln für Kinder von 3–6 Jahren ("funny stories and droll pictures with 15 beautifully coloured panels for children of 3–6 years"). The first version had its illustrations printed with lithographic plates and colored by hand with stencils, the text was printed using typesetting. On 3 October, the book was advertised in the Börsenblatt for a retail price of 48 kreuzer. [1]
In 1846, three other editions of the book were published. The second edition had 5,000 copies produced, each of which was priced at 57 kreuzer; Hoffmann's royalty was of 6.25 percent per copy. Hoffmann's name was only partially revealed in the second edition, where he used the pseudonym "Hoffmann Kinderslieb". His authorship of the book was, however, fully revealed to the public in an advertisement featured on a Frankfurter Konversationsblatt publication on 11 December 1846. Hoffmann's real name was only fully displayed in the fifth edition, which was published in 1847. [1]
The third edition was the first to be officially titled Struwwelpeter, though the second edition had already been nicknamed as such by some book reviewers. [1]
The titles Struwelpeter and Strewelpeter have been used in multiple English editions of Struwwelpeter. The name Slovenly Peter was first found in an 1849 American version of the book. [1]
British twin illustrators Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone provided new illustrations for an English translation published in 1950.[ citation needed ]
In 1847, Struwwelpeter's publishing house sued a Nuremberg publisher for printing the book on broadsheets. [1]
In 1851, the same organization sued publisher Christian Scholz on grounds that he had plagiarized Struwwelpeter by publishing translations of the book in English, Dutch and Swedish. Scholz lost the case and was sentenced to pay a fine of 1,040 gulden, along with court costs of 127 gulden. He was also ordered to destroy all lithographic plates and unsold books in his inventory. This became one of the first copyright court cases in Germany. [1]
In 1891 Mark Twain wrote his own translation of the book, but because of copyright issues Twain's Slovenly Peter was not published until 1935, 25 years after his death. [6]
A British stage production of Shockheaded Peter, by Philip Carr and Nigel Playfair, with music by Walter Rubens, premiered at the Garrick Theatre in London on 26 December 1900, and played 41 performances. The title role was played by George Grossmith Jr., with Kate Bishop as Mamma and Kitty Loftus as Harriet. The piece returned to the Garrick the following year, again playing 41 performances from 14 December, this time with Lawrence Grossmith as Peter, Nina Boucicault as Harriet and 11-year-old Marie Lohr as "Child". [8] In a revival at the Wimbledon Theatre in South London from 26 December 1929 Mamma was played in a limited run of matinees by Louie Pounds, with H. Scott Russell as Papa, Leslie Holland as Augustus and Rex London as Peter. [9]
Geoffrey Shaw's Struwelpeter, produced in 1914, featured the song "Conrad Suck-a-Thumb" by Martin Shaw.
A ballet of Der Struwwelpeter with music composed by Norbert Schultze was produced in Germany before World War II.
A live action film based on the book was released in Germany in 1955. Directed by Fritz Genschow, in this adaptation there is a "happy" ending where the characters' bad deeds are reversed.
Little Suck-a-Thumb (1992) is a psychoanalytical interpretation of the infamous cautionary tale. The short film by writer/director David Kaplan stars Cork Hubbert and Evelyn Solann, with Jim Hilbert as the Great Tall Scissorman. [10]
"The Misadventures of Struwwelpeter" for tenor and piano (also orchestrated for chamber ensemble) was composed by Michael Schelle in 1991. Five of the stories are included in the original version with piano. "Inky Boys" is included only in the chamber version.
Struwwelpeterlieder (1996) is a setting of three of the stories for soprano, viola and piano by American composer Lowell Liebermann.
German composer Kurt Hessenberg (a descendant of Hoffmann) arranged Der Struwwelpeter for children's choir (op. 49) later in his life.
Shockheaded Peter (1998) is a British musical by The Tiger Lillies. [2] that combines elements of pantomime and puppetry with musical versions of the poems with the songs generally following the text. [11] It won a number of British theatre awards in the years following its release.
Composer Kenneth Hesketh's 2000–2001 work, Netsuke (from the Japanese miniature sculptures called netsuke ) comprises five short movements inspired variously by Saint-Exupéry's Le Petit Prince , Struwwelpeter, and a poem by Walter de la Mare.
German comics artist David Füleki has created a number of manga-style adaptions of Struwwelpeter: [2]
The Scissorman story is adapted into comics form by Sanya Glisic in The Graphic Canon , Volume 2, published in 2012. [12]
English author Edward Harold Begbie's first published book, The Political Struwwelpeter (1898), is of British politics, with the British Lion is as Struwwelpeter, "bedraggled, with long, uncut claws." [13]
W. H. Auden refers to the Scissor-Man in his 1930 poem "The Witnesses" (also known as "The Two"):
And now with sudden swift emergence
Come the women in dark glasses, the humpbacked surgeons
And the Scissor Man.
Adolf Hitler was parodied as a Struwwelpeter caricature in 1941 in a book called Struwwelhitler, published in Britain under the pseudonym Dr. Schrecklichkeit (Dr. Horrors). [2]
The "Story of Soup-Kaspar" is parodied in Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking (1945), with a tall story about a Chinese boy named Peter who refuses to eat a swallow's nest served to him by his father, and dies of starvation five months later.
English illustrator Charles Folkard's imaginative study "A Nonsense Miscellany," published in 1956 in Roger Lancelyn Green's anthology The Book of Nonsense, by Many Authors, is a seaside scene that incorporated Baron Munchausen, Struwwelpeter, and a variety of characters from the works of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. [14]
Jamie Rix said that the book inspired him to create Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids when his publisher asked him to write more short stories about rude children. [15] His mother had given him the book as a child and the stories gave him nightmares. [15] Rix wanted to create a similar series of books for his children's generation. [15]
Der Fall Struwwelpeter ("The Struwwelpeter Case"), 1989, by Jörg M. Günther is a satirical treatment in which the various misdeeds in the story - both by the protagonists and their surroundings - are analyzed via the regulations of the German Strafgesetzbuch.
The Jasper Fforde fantasy/mystery novel The Fourth Bear (Hodder & Stoughton, 2006) opens with a police sting operation by the Nursery Crime Division to arrest the Scissorman.
German cartoonist F. K. Waechter's Anti-Struwwwelpeter (1970) is a parody of Der Struwwelpeter. [2]
Comic book writer Grant Morrison references "Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher" in the first story arc of their Doom Patrol run with the recurring line, "The door flew open, in he ran / The great, long, red-legged scissorman." [16] Doom Patrol member Dorothy Spinner, who has the ability to bring imaginary beings to life, considers among her imaginary friends the characters Flying Robert (a ghost baby balloon thing) and The Inky Boys.
The 2000 AD strip London Falling (June–July 2006), by Simon Spurrier and Lee Garbett, explores bogeymen from English folklore and mythology wreaking havoc in a modern-day setting. Two of the characters, Peter Struwwel and The Tailor, are taken from Der Struwwelpeter.
In the Wildstorm Comics series Top 10, one of the officers in the precinct is called Shock-Headed Pete, ostensibly in reference to his electrical powers.
In a 1991 edition of the Thames Television detective series Van der Valk , entitled "Doctor Hoffman's Children," the detective, played by Barry Foster, solves a series of murders after finding the book in the bedroom of his house, when his wife relates the tale of the scissorman to their granddaughter. The murders were all done in the style of events in the book. [17]
Brief references are made to the book in the film Woman in Gold (2015), when the central character reminisces about her youth in Vienna during the Anschluss.
The Office references the book in Season 2, Episode 18: "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" (2006). Dwight Schrute reads The story of Johnny head-in-the-air and The story of the thumb sucker to the children, but is interrupted by a horrified Michael Scott.
Family Guy references the "Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb" in a cutaway gag in "Business Guy," [2] the ninth episode in the eighth season, produced in 2009.
In Doctor Who Season 10 Episode 3 "Thin Ice" (2017), The Doctor reads part of "The Story of the Thumb-Sucker" to the children of 1814 London.
German band Rammstein included the song "Hilf Mir" "(Help Me)" on their album Rosenrot (2005) [2] It is about a child whose parents are not at home. She discovers matches and sets herself on fire and burns completely. In the story, the girl's name is Pauline.
XTC were influenced by "The Story of the Thumb-Sucker" when they wrote "Scissor Man". [18] from 1979's Drums and Wires .
The British post-punk band Shock Headed Peters, formed in 1982, took their name from the story.
American post-punk band Slovenly used the popular cover illustration of Struwwelpeter for the cover of their 1987 album, Riposte, on SST Records.
The author, Heinrich Hoffmann, worked as a physician and later on as psychiatrist. Some of his stories describe habits of children, which can be in extreme forms signs of mental disorders. [4] Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is called Zappel-Philip-Syndrom (Fidgety-Philip syndrome) colloquially in Germany. [19] [20] The story of the Suppen-Kaspar (Soup-Kaspar) is a case example of anorexia nervosa. [21] [22] Uncombable hair syndrome is also called Struwwelpeter syndrome, after the book title. [23]
Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende was a German writer of fantasy and children's fiction. He is known for his epic fantasy The Neverending Story ; other well-known works include Momo and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver. His works have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 35 million copies.
Wilhelm Hauff was a German poet and novelist.
Grimms' Fairy Tales, originally known as the Children's and Household Tales, is a German collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, first published on 20 December 1812. Vol. 1 of the first edition contained 86 stories, which were followed by 70 more tales, numbered consecutively, in the 1st edition, Vol. 2, in 1815. By the seventh edition in 1857, the corpus of tales had expanded to 200 tales and 10 "Children's Legends". It is listed by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Registry.
Heinrich Hoffmann was a German psychiatrist, who also wrote some short works including Der Struwwelpeter, an illustrated book portraying children misbehaving.
Peter Schlemihl is the title character of an 1814 novella, Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte, written in German by exiled French aristocrat Adelbert von Chamisso.
Thumb sucking is a behavior found in humans, chimpanzees, captive ring-tailed lemurs, and other primates. It usually involves placing the thumb into the mouth and rhythmically repeating sucking contact for a prolonged duration. It can also be accomplished with any organ within reach and is considered to be soothing and therapeutic for the person. As a child develops the habit, it will usually develop a "favourite" finger to suck on.
Gundolf Köhler was a German far-right terrorist who planted a bomb at the 1980 Oktoberfest in Munich, killing 13 people and injuring more than 200 in what is known as the Oktoberfest bombing.
Friedrich Karl Waechter was a renowned German cartoonist, author, and playwright.
Kurt Hessenberg was a German composer and professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt.
The Story of Mr 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.
A cautionary tale or moral tale is a tale told in folklore to warn its listener of a danger. There are three essential parts to a cautionary tale, though they can be introduced in a large variety of ways. First, a taboo or prohibition is stated: some act, location, or thing is said to be dangerous. Then, the narrative itself is told: someone disregarded the warning and performed the forbidden act. Finally, the violator comes to an unpleasant fate, which is frequently related in expansive and grisly detail.
Shockheaded Peter is a 1998 musical using the popular German children's book Struwwelpeter (1845) by Heinrich Hoffmann as its basis.
Siegfried Tiefensee was a German musician and conductor.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , well known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which has been called the "Great American Novel," and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He also wrote poetry, short stories, essays, and non-fiction. His big break was "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" (1867).
Felix Hoffmann was a Swiss graphic designer, illustrator and stained glass artist. He created countless illustrations for children's books, illustrations from literature, and stained glass windows, frescoes, and Etchings.
Cautionary Tales for Children: Designed for the Admonition of Children between the ages of eight and fourteen years is a 1907 children's book written by Hilaire Belloc. It is a parody of the cautionary tales that were popular in the 19th century. The poems are a sardonic critique of Victorian era upper class society. The work is in the public domain in the United States.
Fedor Alexis Flinzer was an author, educator and one of the greatest German illustrators of the Gründerzeit, who was called Raphael of Cats.
Jakob Streit was a Swiss author, teacher and anthroposophist. Besides this he worked as musician and choirmaster as well as conductor and dramaturg
Shock Headed Peters were a British post-punk band, formed in 1982. The band took their name from the 19th-century German's children book Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann.
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