num_pages: 428
description: With Gertrude, Herman Hesse continues his lifelong exploration of the irreconcilable elements of human existence. In this fictional memoir, the renowned composer Kuhn recounts his tangled relationships with two artists--his friend Heinrich Muoth, a brooding, self-destructive opera singer, and the gentle, self-assured Gertrude Imthor. Kuhn is drawn to Gertrude upon their first meeting, but Gertrude falls in love with Heinrich, to whom she is introduced when Kuhn auditions them for the leads in his new opera. Hopelessly ill-matched, Gertrude and Heinrich have a disastrous marriage that leaves them both ruined. Yet this tragic affair also becomes the inspiration for Kuhn's opera, the most important success of his artistic life. Like many of Hesse's novels, there is a strong influence derived from Nietzsche, specifically his work The Birth of Tragedy. Muoth represents the passionate Dionysian elements of art, while Gertrud represents the more refined Apollonian elements. The fact that Kuhn's opera is the result of their relationship suggests the combining of the two elements to form a work of high art.
language: Russian
title: Gertruda
titlecomplete: Gertruda
characters: Miss Schniebel, Liddy, Hans H., Heinrich Muoth, Stefan Kranzl, Lottie, Kuhn, Brigitte Teiser, Teiser, Mr. Imthor, Gertrude Imthor, Marian, Konrad Lohe
genres: Classics, Music, Philosophy, Nobel Prize, Novels, German Literature, Germany, 20th Century, Literature, Fiction
ratings_count: 6649
places: Munich (München)
publisher: AST - Folio