Simplicius Simplicissimus

The towering achievement of the earliest novelist in the German language, this novel charts the adventures of its hero, Simplicius, through the horrors of battle, murder, fire, and famine, offering an invaluable eyewitness account of the Thirty Years' War and showing how humanity can, in the end, triumph over brutality. A work of great poetical beauty and satirical strength, and a lasting historical document of timeless value, Simplicius Simplicissimusis presented here in the only edition available in the English language, based on the original text of 1669.

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621—1676) was a German author. At the age of 10 he was kidnapped by Hessian soldiery, and in their midst tasted the adventures of military life in the Thirty Years' War.