The Project Gutenberg eBook, Peter Schlemihl, by Adelbert von Chamisso,
Translated by John Bowring, Illustrated by George Cruikshank

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Title: Peter Schlemihl

Author: Adelbert von Chamisso

Release Date: June 26, 2007 [eBook #21943]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER SCHLEMIHL***

Transcribed from the 1861 Robert Hardwicke edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

PETER SCHLEMIHL:

FROM THE GERMAN
OF
ADELBERT VON CHAMISSO:

TRANSLATED

BY SIR JOHN BOWRING, LL.D., &c.

WITH PLATES BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."--SHAKSPEAKE.

THIRD EDITION.

LONDON:
ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY.

1861.

{Schlemihl giving his shadow away: p0.jpg}

LONDON:
ROBERT HARDWICKE, PRINTER, 192, PICCADILLY.

NOTICE.

Adelung said to me one day at Petersburg--"Have you read Peter
Schlemihl?"--"No."--"If you read it, you will translate it."--I have
translated it.

The story is a moral one. I leave its development to my readers. It
would be little flattering to them to suspect they required my
assistance, in order to discover the obvious lessons it conveys.

I have not scrupled to introduce a few verbal alterations; but the
deviations from the original are very trifling.

THE TRANSLATOR.

To my Friend Wangner

Come to the land of shadows for awhile,
And seek for truth and wisdom! Here below,
In the dark misty paths of fear and woe,
We weary out our souls and waste our toil;
But if we harvest in the richer soil
Of towering thoughts--where holy breezes blow,
And everlasting flowers in beauty smile--
No disappointment shall the labourer know.
Methought I saw a fair and sparkling gem
In this rude casket--but thy shrewder eye,
WANGNER! a jewell'd coronet could descry.
Take, then, the bright, unreal diadem!
Worldlings may doubt and smile insultingly,
The hidden stores of truth are not for _them_.

J. B.

To the Same, from Fouque

We must, dear Edward, protect the history of poor Schlemihl--and so
protect it that it may be concea