Book review - The Prodigy

Hermann Hesse’s The Prodigy was published in 1905; its original title was Beneath the Wheel (Untem Rad); it was his second novel, following Peter Camenzind. He was twenty-nine when it was published.

 

The story concerns a gifted boy, Hans Giebenrath who passes an exam for acceptance in a seminary in Maulbronn. Prior to this and during his boarding there his education is exclusively focused on increasing his knowledge. Personal development does not figure in the syllabus. For three years his teachers, the vicar, his father and the headmaster urged him on unceasingly, allowing him not a moment’s rest. He suffered from headaches.

‘He had almost forgotten everything he knew of that sport (fishing) and during the past year he had wept bitterly when it had been forbidden on account of his examination.’ (p10)

After the exams, and before he went to the seminary, he was allowed some freedom: ‘… he was eager to catch up on the gay months he had missed with all possible haste and become once more a small, completely ordinary and irresponsible schoolboy.’ (p30)

At the seminary, Hans begins a close friendship with Hermann Heilner who provides an outlet for Hans, introducing him to poetry. ‘… but now he became aware of the treacherous power of fine-sounding words, alluring imagery and soothing rhymes, and his respect for this newly-opened world had grown, with his admiration of his friend, into a single shared feeling’ (p72).

Unfortunately, Heilner is expelled. As a result, Hans’ academic performance deteriorates with the onset of psychological problems. Once at home, Hans is adrift, with no friends from his past since he spent his childhood devoted to scholastic study. He showed much promise yet is considered a failure, and feels this acutely. When he is apprenticed as a blacksmith, it seems possible that he might at last find some fulfilment through labour. Sadly, it is not to be. The ending is not a happy one.

At the time of writing this book, which contains reminiscences of Hesse’s own past – he was expelled from that seminary – similar novels and stories in Germany addressed the issue of sensitive pupils crushed by educational tyranny in public lycées and private and military boarding schools.

Inevitably, as this is literary fiction and written so long ago, it is ‘tell’ rather than ‘show’: in effect, omniscient narrative, and indeed lyrical in this translation.

Hans probably didn’t have much of a chance, really: his father is described thus: His inner life was in every respect that of a philistine. The more sensitive side of his character had long been overlaid with the dust of neglect and now consisted of little more than the traditional rough and ready acknowledgement of the family, pride in his son and an occasional generous impulse towards the poor.’ (p5)

Hans was egged on by the local clergy, also. Interestingly, hearing about Bishops today who openly doubt is nothing new, it seems: ‘… the vicar – according to rumour – was one of the new school of thought and reputed not to believe even in the Resurrection.’ (p12) Hesse’s riposte might be: ‘For life is stronger than death and belief more powerful than doubt.’ (p37)

There are a number of bucolic passages, evoking beautiful images; in the early pages, they’re lyrical and full of hope for the future, yet towards the end of the book they become sinister: ‘The decline of the year, the silent fall of the leaves, the russet-coloured fields, the thick early morning mists, the ripe, tired dying of the vegetation drove him, as it does all sick people, into heavy hopeless moods and thoughts of deep sadness. He felt the desire to wither with it…’ (p119)

‘When a tree is pollarded, it puts out new shoots at the base, and in the same way a soul, too, which was ruined in the bud, finds its way back to the springtime of beginnings and prescient childhood… roots thrive quickly, full of sap, but it is only a semblance of life and never again will it become a healthy tree.’ (p111)

To counter these depressing images, here’s a quotation from Hesse’s book My Belief (1974): ‘Among the joys mentioned above are those granted us by our daily contact with nature. Our eyes, above all those misused, overstrained eyes of modern man, can be, if only we are willing, an inexhaustible source of pleasure… Gradually and without effort the eye trains itself to transmit many small delights, to contemplate nature … My advice to the person suffering from lack of time and from apathy is this: Seek out each day as many as possible of the small joys, and thriftily save up the larger, more demanding pleasures for holidays and appropriate hours. It is the small joys first of all that are granted us for recreation for daily relief and disburdenment, not the greater ones.’ Essay, ‘On Little Joys’, 1905.

Book Launch – CATACOMB – ‘Educate a girl…’

In my ‘Acknowledgements’ for Catacomb I’ve written: ‘My appreciation and thanks to Derek Workman, especially for his insights into Morocco and its people. He actively supports Education For All, a charity that helps girls from the poorest families in the most remote villages of the High Atlas to continue their education…’  I hasten to add that any errors surviving in the book are mine alone…

Derek lived in Spain (where my wife and I currently abide) for many years but he has recently moved to Asia and regularly posts photos of his new home on FaceBook. He still writes travel articles and books. At the end of Catacomb my publisher Crooked Cat Publishing has generously inserted the following:

Education For All

Educate a boy and you educate the man;

educate a girl and you educate a family,

a community, a nation.

To most of us, access to an education beyond primary school never even enters into our consideration; it is simply there, almost by divine right. But what if it wasn’t? And almost worse still, what if it is on offer but you can’t get to it because you live too far from the nearest school or your family is too poor to pay even the basic accommodation costs?

Education For All is a Moroccan-based charity that builds boarding houses so that girls from the poorest families in the most remote villages of the High Atlas Mountains can continue their secondary education. Begun in 2007 the idea was that Education For All would provide for the needs of a number girls for the three years it would take them to complete their secondary education. An apparently modest undertaking, but one that would affect the lives of an initial group of twelve, increasing by the same number each year, in ways that couldn’t have been imagined at the time.

Eight years later and with five houses and over 180 girls to support, Education For All has given girls whose only option in life would have been to stay in their remote village the opportunity to excel beyond their wildest hopes and dreams. EFA has more than proven itself as an organisation capable of improving the lives of those under its care.

• 80% of the girls who arrived at the EFA boarding house in Asni passed their exams to take them on to study at the lycée.
• Of the ten young girls who began their education in 2007, seven went on to pass their baccalaureate, and five of those went on to university.
• 93% exam pass mark in 2014 (almost twice the national average) shows that the organisation is working well and gives confidence to sponsors.
• Administration takes no fee. All income other than bank charges goes to pay the wages of the house mothers and staff, and the running costs for each house.

Education For All’s premise is that an educated girl can make better decisions for herself and her family, and participate fully and equally in society. Being at an EFA boarding house is, for most girls in the region, the only way they will be able to achieve this. We see how the girls instantly flourish in their houses and achieve great results due to the nutritious meals, warm beds, plentiful learning resources and love and care from staff and volunteers.

It costs 1,000€ per girl per year to ensure the continued development of these otherwise marginalised young girls who would spend the remainder of their life in a remote village with little contact with the outside world and no education. You can download A Different Life – The Story of Education for All at efamorocco.org. To find out how you can contribute contact Sonia Omar at sonia@efamorocco.org

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This heart-warming enterprise flies in the face of many Western misconceptions or perceptions regarding Morocco, and it is to be applauded and hopefully supported.
 
CATACOMB - Universal purchase link here: