num_pages: 160
description: In Hermann Hesse's Beneath the Wheel or The Prodigy , Hans Giebenrath lives among the dull and respectable townsfolk of a sleepy Black Forest village. When he is discovered to be an exceptionally gifted student, the entire community presses him onto a path of serious scholarship. Hans dutifully follows the regimen of tireless study and endless examinations, his success rewarded only with more crushing assignments. When Hans befriends a rebellious young poet, he begins to imagine other possibilities outside the narrowly circumscribed world of the academy. Finally sent home after a nervous breakdown, Hans is revived by nature and romance, and vows never to return to the gray conformity of the academic system.
language: English
title: The Prodigy
titlecomplete: The Prodigy
characters: Hans Giebernath, Emil Lucius, Otto Wenger, Karl Hamel, Otto Hartner, Joseph Giebenrath, Hermann Heilner
genres: Fiction, Philosophy, German Literature, School, Literature, Classics, Novels, Germany, 20th Century, Literary Fiction
ratings_count: 18257
places: Maulbronn, Bielach, Stuttgart, Germany
publisher: Penguin Classic