Heinrich Hoffmann (1)Reseñas

This was too disturbing for my taste...

I read this as a child and hated it to the point that if it lay around somewhere in a waiting room, I would cover it with other books so I didn't have to see it.
Maybe it is okay if you read it as an adult, as a childrens book I find it unsuitable.

Indeholder "Forord", "Indledning", "I. Historien om de sorte drenge", "II. Historien om spejledukken", "III. Historien om den slemme Frederik", "IV. Historien om Hanne i Månen", "V. Historien om den kræsne Mads", "VI. En meget sørgelig historie om tændstikker", "VII. Historien om Sutteper", "VIII. Historien om Rikke Slikmund", "IX. Rokke-Hans", "X. 'Fugleskræmsel'".

"Forord" handler om bogens tilblivelse som en julegave fra lægen Heinrich Hoffmann til sin ældste søn (på tre år) i julen 1844. Rækkefølgen af historier i originalen er anderledes, så på tysk hedder den Der Struwwelpeter. Bastian er Der grosse Nicolas på tysk (dvs julemanden) og så videre. Den danske oversætter Simon Simonsen har således forbedret originalen.
"Indledning" handler om at det er en julegave til et artigt barn.
"I. Historien om de sorte drenge" handler om nogle børn, der driller en neger og til straf bliver dyppet i blæk.
"II. Historien om spejledukken" handler om Sofie, der laver skæv mund foran alle spejle og ender med en evigt skæv mund.
"III. Historien om den slemme Frederik" handler om en dreng med ADHD, der bliver bidt af hunden og må ligge i sengen, mens hunden spiser hans kage. Oh ve, oh klage!
"IV. Historien om Hanne i Månen" handler om Hanne, der i begærlighed rækker ud efter Månens spejlbillede og drukner. Nu er hendes billede at se på Månen.
"V. Historien om den kræsne Mads" handler om Mads, der ikke vil spise suppe og dør på femte dagen af sult.
"VI. En meget sørgelig historie om tændstikker" handler om Jette, der leger med ild og ender som askehob.
"VII. Historien om Sutteper" handler om Peter, der sutter på tommeltot til skrædderen kommer med sin store saks og klipper begge tommelfingre af ham.
"VIII. Historien om Rikke Slikmund" handler om Rikke, der slikker på alt og ender med en rød næse.
"IX. Rokke-Hans" handler om Hans, der vipper på sin stol og kommer til at rage alt ned fra bordet. Og må gå til sengs uden kage. Har man nu kendt mage?
"X. 'Fugleskræmsel'" handler om Konrad, der ikke vil have klippet hverken hår eller negle. Og nu bliver vist frem for penge.

Muntre historier om børn, der får lov at gøre som de selv vil. Historien om Hanne i Månen er dog helt urealistisk.

There have been times when I wished I could threaten such woeful stories of comeuppance, but I am glad society has moved on.

This is a kind of board book approach to the story of wicked children who get their just and nasty deserts.

This was a rough one. I think that it is good for the purpose of being worldly, but I think that it was a little much for children. I understand that the purpose of it is to teach lessons like don't play with matches and don't suck your thumb but I think it is a little aggressive in the way that they teach the lessons. Not even so much- like the little girl that played with matches burned. i feel like that is something that could happen if you play with matches but I think that maybe its too much for a classroom. If the parents want to teach there children lessons like that then go for it but I personally would not.

Not nearly as good, in my humble opinion, as the first one. I hated the nursery rhymes, half of them made no sense at all. The story about the crows was depressing. I did not hate it, but I LOVED the first one.

This book was terrific and I can see why Victorian children were so well behaved ! Fancy a story about having your thumbs cut off by a crazy tailor for being a thumb sucker ??!!!!!

Another one deals with a girl told not to touch the matches who burns herself up !!!! Hard to believe this was classified as children's lit 150 years ago.

As awful as the stories are, I found them a refreshing change from the junk I had in 1st grade ( Dick and Jane ) and Carolyn Hayward.

I am much more in the Alice in Wonderland and Roald Dahl camp for kid's lit.

“Der Struwwelpeter” is Heinrich Hoffman's classic collection of moral fables for children. The message of the lavishly illustrated book is that children who are disobedient or display antisocial behavior will suffer a hideous fate. Children like Harriet (who plays with matches), Little Suck-a-Thumb, Fidgety Philip, and the Inky Boys ignore the sound advice of their elders and are swiftly punished or destroyed by their own behavior or by supernatural forces. It is an example of a code of behavior very different from modern books for kids which encourage boldness, curiosity, and individualism, and in which mistakes are forgiven and seen as a way to learn and grow. In “Der Struwwelpeter,” children are meant to learn to conform through fear and threat of injury or death.

I think this book could rpvoke some interesting discussions in middle school and up about societal norms and expectations and the methods we use to teach kids to abide by them. It's also extremely chuckle-inducing and fun to read in as serious a voice as one can maintain.

At first look, this seems highly in appropriate to read to children. However, after reading more about the author's motivation for writing it, in a time where children's books were dry and laden with obvious and rigid lessons, I can appreciate this book. Originally in German, this classic gives gruesome cautionary tales to ill-behaved children. When read with an open mind, humor can be found in the consequences for the defiant actions of some children. The thumb sucking one is outrageous, and some parents might not feel too comfortable with the content, but I'm sure a child would even be able to interpret the exaggeration of it all.

Fun children's classic whose illustrations really appealed to me. Doesn't really stand out to me as a one off but definitely enjoyed the story and the characters involved.

Fun children's classic whose illustrations really appealed to me. Doesn't really stand out to me as a one off but definitely enjoyed the story and the characters involved.

Fun children's classic whose illustrations really appealed to me. Doesn't really stand out to me as a one off but definitely enjoyed the story and the characters involved.

"This funny picture-book...that we may grow good and wise, and 'neath a merry laugh's disguise, Learn naughty ways to fear.",, October 8, 2014

This review is from: Slovenly Kate and Other Stories: From the Struwwelpeter Library (Dover Children's Classics) (Paperback)
I adored Struwwelpeter, but didn't know till recently that Hoffmann had actually written further 'morality verses' for children (originally published 1875) - when I did, I just had to buy a copy!
'Slovenly Kate' is longer than 'Struwwelpeter' (93p as against 24p). However only the first 37p contain this kind of verse; there are then around 20p of well-known nursery-rhymes (with illustrations). Then a fairly long tale in rhyme about crows. Then 3 poems that afficianados of Struwwelpeter will already know, but in a new translation, which doesn't work if you know the original off by heart. ("Augustus was a chubby lad..." rendered into "Now William was a healthy child.." for example.) And finally a longish tale (in prose) about a pig.
HOWEVER the new verses are a delight! I loved Meddlesome Matthew, whose habit of sticking his fingers into various boxes, ends with him interfering with a basket of crabs (wonderful illustration of a crab affixed to each digit!) Also Fred who, running away from his shadow, falls downstairs and breaks his crown ("There on the mat he lay forlorn Till Betty brought her tray; Till Betty came at peep of dawn, and threw poor Fred away.") Naughty Mary swallows a cherry-stone and ends with a tree growing out of her mouth; Sammy Sweet-Tooth steals dough which expands inside him ("So big is grown her little son, He cannot waddle - much less run.") And the wonderful 'Screaming Annie' who when left at home by Mama screams "I will be taken out" till a stork on the roof responds "You SHALL be taken out" and flies off with her.
I think these verses somewhat lack the horror aspect of Struwwelpeter, but it's an absolute must for Hoffmann afficianados!

"The English Struwwelpeter or Pretty Stories and Funny Pictures", October 8, 2014

This review is from: Struwwelpeter in English Translation (Dover Children's Classics) (Paperback)
I was brought up on Struwwelpeter - a series of hilarious 'morality rhymes' for children from 1840s Germany. Who could forget 'Fidgety Phil' pulling the tablecloth and all its contents onto his head? ("Table oh so bare, and ah! Poor Papa and poor Mama Look quite cross, and wonder how They shall make their dinner now.") Or chubby Augustus who wouldn't eat his soup and met a sticky end ("He's like a little bit of thread, and on the fifth day - he was dead!")
More grotesque is the Long Red Legged Scissorman who cuts off Conrad's thumbs when he sucks them ("Mama had scarcely turned her back, the thumb was in, Alas! Alack!")
But 21st century readers may have more sympathy with the hare who runs off with the hunter's gun and turns it on him; the boys who mock a black child and are dipped in a huge bottle of ink by 'Great Agrippa', and the dog who bites Cruel Frederick, then eats his dinner.
24 utterly unforgettable pages. I would certainly disagree with reviewers who think it's too bloodthirsty for children (I adored it - I got my book aged around 8), and have just bought a copy for my granddaughter.

mäßiger Zustand, auf der Titelseite Papierabriss

bookshelves: autumn-2010, kiddlewinks, e-book, gutenberg-project, published-1911, poetry, noir, translation
Read on September 23, 2010



Gory but Good Illustrations by Walter Hayn - that one picture of the eyes coming out will stay with me for quite a while!

Betsy would never wash herself
When from her bed she rose,
But just as quickly as she could
She hurried on her clothes.

Not for today's children but great fun when read as an adult, viewing it is a turn of the century moralist collection.

Traditional collection of German didactic verses for children (usually translated "shock-headed Peter) but children who do bad things and come to bizarre ends. "Johnny Head in the Air (Hanns Guck in die Luft) is referenced in Sayer's story "Uncle Meleager's Will" and there are other references suggesting it was well known in late-nineteenth early twentieth century Britain. Ciever illustrations.

This book is the antidote to Disney. It is the opposite of all those nasty, sugar-sweet versions of Cinderella, the Little Mermaid and worst of all Winnie-the-Pooh. Worst because Eeyore was, in the original, A.A. Milne version, a sarcastic, depressive real loner of a donkey, not a sweet-natured stuffed toy.

Struwwelpeter is all about children getting punished in the nastiest possible ways for their awful misdeeds. I loved this book when I was a kid. I also loved Disney, but I grew out of that, except for Bambi. Have to love Bambi.

My two personal favourites of the stories are firstly, Conrad, aka Little Suck-a-Thumb who was told that if he didn't stop plugging his mouth with his thumb he would get it cut off. And when he didn't and his mother was out, the nasty Scissorman came and snip snap, both thumbs gone!

Secondly is Augustus, my personal favourite, who starved himself to death rather than drink the nasty soup he was served for lunch. I had some sympathy there as more than once I had to sit at the lunch table, even missing school in the afternoon, because I wouldn't drink up the nasty chicken soup. I know that being Jewish chicken soup is supposed to be in my dna, but it just isn't and I hate the stuff, loathe it Or another time, wouldn't eat the liver casserole, cold with congealed floating grease, or lamb chops glistening with fat...

These sort of stories were much more satisfying to me as a child being delightfully shivery.

But there was something else. Children have a very highly developed sense of justice. They are forever saying, "it's not fair" about some perceived injustice. Stories like these where naughty children get their comeuppance appeal to kids, they see the fitness of a punishment, rather than the forgiveness and sugary reward and happily-ever-after od Disney that never actually comes their way when they've been very naughty little boys and girls.

You can read all the stories and see the original hand-coloured woodblock prints on the Gutenberg site.

Der Struwwelpeter is classic German children's book, but one that, in my opinion, is (or at least can be) rather frightening and too strictly pedagogical for most children of today. I was actually frightened by many of the stories as a young child, and while I have more of an appreciation for the book now, I still think that many of the anecdotes (as well as the illustrations) can be truly creepy for imaginative and sensitive children. I certainly would not simply read this book aloud to children, unless I were absolutely sure that they would not be unduly freaked out by the stories (or the accompanying pictures).

Rating this translation of the classic German picture book is difficult. Yes, the book was and is a classic, but I do not believe that the stories contained therein are at all suitable for some children, especially those children who have a very vivid imagination. My grandmother read me the German version of this book when I was a child, and some of the stories actually gave me nightmares. I was absolutely sure that the tailor would come with his horrible scissors and cut off my brother's thumbs (because he sucked his thumbs at the time), and the terrible story of the little girl burned to death because she played with matches frightened me so much that I did not even attempt to light a match until I was about 18 years old. The stories and pictures are entertaining to a point, and the book is a worthwhile and interesting example of 19th century German children's literature and pedagogy, but in my opinion, it is not a book which can and should be read to very young children. Older children might find a discussion of the different pedagogical methods intriguing, but Heinrich Hoffmann's work should never simply be read to to any child without first making sure that the former will not be needlessly frightened by the stories and/or illustrations.

I liked this book a lot. The fact that it is travelling together with Struwwelhitler (for reasons of comparison)made it even more fun.
I'm glad I signed up for this dual ring :-)

Typically German cautionary tales from the 1800s for the education of children in proper behavior and demeanor, most ending with horrifying consequences resulting from disobedience and misbehavior, often including the death of the offending child. The book is a condensed, well-made and well-illustrated miniature, designed to take the punishment of being handled by children.

This is a beautiful edition of this traditional German book. It comes with a CD of all the stories as read by Bernd Reheuser.

These aren't your typical stories for children. Much like the original Grimm's stories (not the Disney version), they are actually very grotesque and were meant to be read to children to encourage them to be on their best behavior. Having read them as an adult, I am thankful that I don't have to be in the same shoes as poor Suck-A-Thumb.