Transcribed from the 1889 Cassell & Company edition byDavid Price,
CASSELL’S NATIONAL LIBRARY.
Peter Schlemihl
BY
ADELBERT CHAMISSO
The Storywithout an End
by
CARODÉ
HYMNS TO THE NIGHT
BY
NOVALIS
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited:
LONDON, PARIS & MELBOURNE
1889
INTRODUCTION.
“Peter Schlemihl,” oneof the pleasantest fancies of the days when Germany delighted inromance, was first published in 1814, and was especiallynaturalised in England by association with the genius of GeorgeCruikshank, who enriched a translation of it with some of hishappiest work as an illustrator. An account of the book andits author is here reprinted at the end of the tale, asoriginally given by the translator. To this account one ortwo notes may be added. Louis Charles Adelaide de Chamissode Boncourt was born on the 27th of January, 1781, at theChâteau of Boncourt, in Champagne, which he made thesubject of one of his most beautiful lyrics. He belonged toa family faithful to Louis XVI., that fled to Würzburg fromthe fury of the French Revolution. Thus he was taken toGermany a child of nine, and was left there when the family, withother emigrants, returned to France in 1801. At fifteen hehad Teutonised his name to Adelbert von Chamisso, and wasappointed page to the Queen of Prussia. In the war thatcame afterwards, for a very short time he bore arms against theFrench, but being one of a garrison taken in the captured fort ofHamlin, he and his comrades had to pledge their honour that theywould not again bear arms against France during that war. After the war he visited France. His parents then weredead, and though he stayed in France some years, he wrote fromFrance to a friend, “I am German heart and soul, and cannotfeel at home here.” He wandered irresolutely, thenbecame Professor of Literature in a gymnasium in LaVendée. Still he was restless. In 1812 he setoff for a walk in Switzerland, returned to Germany, and took tothe study of anatomy. In 1813, Napoleon’s expeditionto Russia and the peril to France from legions marching uponParis caused to Chamisso suffering and confusion of mind.
It is often said that his sense of isolation between interestsof the land of his forefathers and the land of his adoption makesitself felt through all the wild playfulness of “PeterSchlemihl,” which was at this time written, whenChamisso’s age was about thirty-two. A letter of histo the Councillor Trinius, in Petersburg, tells how he came towrite it. He had lost on a pedestrian tour his hat, hisknapsack, his gloves, and his pocket handkerchief—the chiefmovables about him. His friend Fouqué asked himwhether he hadn’t also lost his shadow? The friendspleased their fancies in imagining what would have happened tohim if he had. Not long afterwards he was reading in LaFontaine of a polite man who drew out of his pocket whatever wasasked for. Chamisso thought, He will be bringing out next acoach and horses. Out of these hints came the fancy of“Peter Schlemihl, the Shadowless Man.” In allthough