num_pages: 192
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: Beneath the Wheel
titlecomplete: Beneath the Wheel
characters: Otto Wenger, Joseph Giebenrath, Hermann Heilner, Emil Lucius, Otto Hartner, Karl Hamel, Hans Giebernath
genres: Germany, 20th Century, Philosophy, Literary Fiction, Novels, School, Literature, German Literature, Classics, Fiction
ratings_count: 18249
places: Bielach, Germany, Maulbronn, Stuttgart
publisher: Picador