Children Hoffmann, Heinrich: Struwwelpeter/Slovenly Peter (De,Fr,It,En,illus). v2. 29 Apr 2019

[GrannyGrump]

Struwwelpeter / Slovenly Peter by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann (1809–1894)
Presenting German, French, Italian, English, and bonus Mark Twain translation.
Lavishly illustrated in color.

SCARED STRAIGHT !!!

175 years after his appearance, The Struwwelpeter remains one of the most famous characters of children's literature. Generations of children remember the terrible punishments inflicted on Peter and the other naughty characters of this collection of cautionary tales in verse.

Modern readers might question the suitability of presenting such graphically violent tales to very young children, but in nineteenth-century Germany, such “cautionary tales” were seen as an effective means of imparting lessons of safety and social custom in a humorous fashion. (And consider also the violence found in many traditional fairy tales.) One commentator tells us that nineteenth-century children experienced “unadulterated glee” when looking at Hoffmann's figures, that they were able to recognize easily the exaggeration in the figures, and that therefore they did not read them as a serious threat.

Mark Twain wrote in the introduction to his translation: “It was Dr. Hoffmann’s opinion that the charm of the book lay not in the subjects or the pictures, but wholly in the jingle. That may be true, for rhymes that jingle felicitously are very dear to a child's ear.”
And, we may add, to an adult’s ear as well.

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Heinrich Hoffmann (June 13, 1809 - September 20, 1894) was a German psychiatrist, poet, and author of children's books. He is most noted for writing Der Struwwelpeter, an illustrated book portraying children misbehaving.

Struwwelpeter was created in reaction to the lack of desirable children's books. In 1844, disappointed in his intention to buy a picture book as a Christmas present for his three-year-old son, Hoffmann instead wrote and illustrated his own book. He was persuaded by friends to publish it, and in 1845 the six stories in rhyme appeared under the pseudonym “Reimerich Kinderlieb,” titled Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder mit 15 schön kolorierten Tafeln für Kinder von 3-6 Jahren (Funny Stories and Comical Pictures with 15 beautifully colored plates for children from 3 to 6 years old). Subsequent editions saw the addition of four stories, and the book’s title was changed to Der Struwwelpeter, under the author’s own name.

The book quickly became famous in Germany, and success spread to other countries. In England, the first translation appeared in 1848, and many other translations were to follow. Countless imitations and parodies were published in the following decades, to be eventually designated as the sub-genre “Struwwelpetriades.”


This compilation includes the following titles:

Spoiler:

Der Struwwelpeter
Written and illustrated by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann, 1845.

Pierre l'Ébouriffé
French translation 1860 by “Trim” (pseudonym of Louis Ratisbonne, 1827–1900).

Pierino Porcospino
Italian translation 1882 by Gaetano Negri (1838–1902).

The English Struwwelpeter
The traditional anonymous English translation from 1848.

Slovenly Peter
English translation, ca. 1850 by Annis Lee Furness Wister (1830–1908).
Note that Ms. Wister omitted the story of Little Suck-a-Thumb and the Scissors-Man.

Struwwelpeter
An anonymous English translation, ca. 1903.

Mark Twain’s Slovenly Peter
This 1891 translation by Samuel Clemens (1835–1910) was first published in 1935.

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Text and illustrations for this compilation were obtained from multiple online sources.

The contents of the German Der Struwwelpeter were first published 1845, 1846, 1850. Publication dates of the translations were as noted above. The text of this ebook is in the public domain worldwide, with the exception of Mark Twain’s Slovenly Peter, which is not currently in the public domain in the USA.

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I must say, the text flow of this ebook is not optimal, and probably fixed-format or pdf would have been a better choice, but I hope you will enjoy it regardless. Uploaded in a zip-file to meet file-size limit.

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EDIT: Uploaded updated version 2. Many thanks to Doitsu for the corrections. Previous downloads 79.
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[GrannyGrump]

Just uploaded version 2, with corrections to text errors.
Many thanks to Doitsu for the feedback.