Sketches from My Boyhood by Justinus Kerner

Description

Justinus Kerner (1786-1862) was one of the most celebrated figures in nineteenth-century German culture. A physician by training, he was also a leading member of the Swabian Romantic circle of poets which included, among others, Ludwig Uhland and Gustav Schwab. Kerner's international fame rests primarily on his contributions to the investigation of paranormal phenomena. The most important of these was his exhaustive case study, Die Seherin von Prevorst (The Seeress of Prevorst, 1829). The book was translated into English in 1849 by the English writer, Catherine Crowe (1803-76). Until the present, this has been the only work of Kerner available in English.Apart from his many scientific publications and his poetry, Kerner was also the author of one of the more intriguing literary works of German Romanticism, Die Reiseschatten (Travel Shadows, 1811). Ostensibly an account of his travels through Germany and Austria following his graduation from the University of Tubingen, the book is a highly imaginative, almost surreal concoction of Romantic, sentimental, grotesque, satirical, and Old German folkloric elements. Attributed by Kerner to an itinerant shadow performer named Lux, Travel Shadows was inspired by the tradition of Chinese Shadows (ombres chinoises) and represents Kerner's attempt to create a travel narrative in the form of a grandiose shadow show.In the introduction to his translation of Travel Shadows -- the first in English -- Harold B. Segel situates Kerner's work in the context of the emergence of a German shadow show tradition in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Table of Contents List of Illustrations Note from the Translator Introduction Sketches From My Boyhood by Justinus Kerner Preface My Birth and Early Years in Ludwigsburg. The Time of Duke Karl Schiller in Ludwigsburg in 1793. His Defense of Duke Karl. Favorable Signs from the Life of This Prince The Time of Duke Ludwig My Ancestors My Brother Georg My Brother’s Friendly Relationship with Adam Lux My Brother Georg’s Return to Ludwigsburg across Switzerland My Brother Louis My Brother Karl The French Emigrants in Ludwigsburg and My Further Childhood There Further Life at That Time The Music Director Poli The Mayor Kommerell The Town Hall Servant Michel The Civil Servant Vogel The Rocket on the Kitchen Fireplace My Father’s Humor Ludwigsburg’s Desolation after the Death of Duke Ludwig Departure from Ludwigsburg and Migration to Maulbronn in 1799 My Life in Maulbronn, Its Teachers, Its Cloisters and Monastery Church The Monastery Barbacan Friend Gottfried and His Parents Cousins and Sisters The Coachman Matthias The Monastery Walls and Their Antlions The Town Hall The Cloisters The Summer Church The Dormitory and Its Inhabitants The Old Foundation Plaque of the Monastery The Monastery Preachers The Prelate’s Wife with the Owl’s Head The Prelature Passageways and the Monastery Carriage with the Prelate Weiland The Old Ghost in the Prelature Doctor Faust and His Friend Prelate Entenfuss My Stay in Knittlingen Return to Maulbronn upon the Appearance of the French The Professor in the Chimney The French in the Town Hall The Sauvegarde. My and My Father’s Attitudes toward the French. My Brother Karl My Illness Stay in Brackenheim St. Michael’s Mountain First Childhood Nature Study The Trip to Heilbronn and the Miracle Doctor The American Hippopotamus A Wonderful Dancer Gmelin the Magnetizer The Rose Garden in the Churchyard Magnetic Dreams and Gradual Recovery Return to Maulbronn The Future Relatives The Farmer Rapp My Brother Georg with Reinhard in Maulbronn My Father’s Illness Father’s Death Dearest Wife! Return to Ludwigsburg My Brother Karl in 1799 and My School Years and Boyhood in that Same Year My Brother Georg in Italy On the Banks of the Anio My Brother Louis and the Rebellion in Knittlingen My Brother Karl and the Detentions in Ludwigsburg Hegel's Sister School and School Comrades The Presence of the French and My Brother Georg in Ludwigsburg Boyhood Games in Winter The Camera Obscura in Moonlight The Poet Conz The Time of My Confirmation My Stay at the Comptoir of the Textile Factory in Ludwigsburg A Lost Comedy The Originals in Ludwigsburg The Foolish Family Tailor and Jung Stilling’s Preterition The Insane Handicrafts and Further Engagement of My Mind While So Engaged Walks. The Asperg Fortress, Wolf and Bilfinger. Nature Study The Chemist Staudenmayer and His Friends Frau von Gaisberg and Her Cats Herr von Üxküll The Painter Simanowitz and Two Other Friends About My Siblings at That Time. My Sister Wilhelmine My Brother Karl My Brother Georg in Sweden My Brother Georg’s Letter from Lund of 6 August 1802 My Entrance into the University