edwinbcn's Nobel Laureates in Literature List

Apparently, I have read just about one third of the total number of Nobel Laureates, works by 39 different authors, and I have read 181 books by these authors.

This is the kind of challenge I like, so I will join in.

Number of Laureates read by 31 Dec. 2022: 39/119

39 writers

181 books

In progress: Score Board

My personal challenge will be:

* to read 10 new Nobel Laureates that I have never read before

* to read 20 books by Nobel Laureates old & new

Laureates read in 2023

2022 Annie Ernaux (French)
2021 Abdulrazak Gurnah (Tanzanian)
2020 Louise Glück (American poet)

2019 Peter Handke (Austrian)
READ: Versuch über den Pilznarren: Eine Geschichte für sich
READ: Noch drei Versuche Versuch über die Müdigkeit Versuch über die Jukebox Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum
READ: Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum
READ: Versuch über den Stillen Ort
READ: Die Tablas von Daimiel. Ein Umwegzeugenbericht zum Prozeß gegen Slobodan Milošević
READ: Lucie im Wald mit den Dingsda
READ: Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter
READ: In einer dunklen Nacht ging ich aus meinem stillen Haus
READ: Über die Dörfer. Dramatisches Gedicht.
READ: Abschied des Träumers / Winterliche Reise / Sommerlicher Nachtrag
READ: Unter Tränen fragend. Nachträgliche Aufzeichnungen von zwei Jugoslawien-Durchquerungen im Krieg, März und April 1999
READ: Der Chinese des Schmerzes
READ: Falsche Bewegung
READ: Kindergeschichte
READ: Aber ich lebe nur von den Zwischenräumen. Ein Gespräch, geführt von Herbert Gamper
READ: Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire
READ: Die linkshändige Frau
READ: Langsame Heimkehr
READ: Wunschloses Unglück
READ: Nachmittag eines Schriftstellers
READ: Das Spiel vom Fragen, oder die Reise zum sonoren Land
2018 (given in 2019) - Olga Tokarczuk (Polish)
2017 - Kazuo Ishiguro (British)
READ: Never Let Me Go
READ: When We Were Orphans
READ: A Pale View of Hills
READ: The unconsoled
READ: Nocturnes. Five stories of music and nightfall
READ: An artist of the floating world
READ: The remains of the day
2016 - Bob Dylan (US, songwriter)
READ: Tarantula
2015 - Svetlana Alexievich (Ukrainian/Belarussian)
2014 - Patrick Modiano (French)
2013 - Alice Munro (Canadian, short stories)
READ: Te veel geluk
2012 - Mo Yan (Chinese)
2011 - Tomas Transtromer (Swedish poet)
2010 - Mario Vargas Llosa (Peruvian)

2009 - Herta Müller (German Romanian)
2008 - J. M. G. Le Clézio (French)
READ: Voyage à Rodrigues
2007 - Doris Lessing (English)
READ: The cleft
2006 - Orhan Pamuk (Turkish)
READ: The naive and the sentimental novelist
READ: The white castle
READ: Het nieuwe leven
READ: Istanbul. Memories of a city
2005 - Harold Pinter (English playwright)
READ: The birthday party
READ: Old times
2004 - Elfriede Jelinek (Austrian)
2003 - J. M. Coetzee (South African)
READ: Inner Workings. Literary essays 2000-2005
READ: Summertime. Scenes from provincial life
READ: Slow man
READ: Disgrace
READ: Dusklands
READ: Waiting for the Barbarians
READ: Elizabeth Costello
READ: Life and times of Michael K
READ: Stranger shores. Essays, 1986-1999
READ: Boyhood. Scenes from provincial life
READ: The Master of Petersburg
READ: Youth
READ: Foe
READ: Here and now. Letters 2008-2011
2002 - Imre Kertész (Hungarian)
2001 - V. S. Naipaul (British, born in Trinidad)
READ: The enigma of arrival
READ: Between father and son. Family letters
READ: Miguel Street
READ: Among the believers. An Islamic journey
READ: Reading and writing. A personal account
READ: A writer's people. Ways of looking and feeling
READ: The masque of Africa. Glimpses of African belief
READ: Literary occasions
READ: The night watchman's occurrence book. And other comic inventions
READ: A flag on the island
READ: Mr Stone and the Knights Companion
READ: The suffrage of Elvira
READ: India. A wounded civilization
READ: The loss of El Dorado. A colonial history
READ: The Middle Passage. Impressions of five colonial societies
READ: Half a life
READ: Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples
2000 - Gao Xingjian (Chinese)
READ: One man's bible
READ: Kramp

1999 - Günter Grass (German)
READ: Hundejahre
READ: Mein Jahrhundert
READ: Rede vom Verlust. über den Niedergang der politischen Kultur im geeinten Deutschland
READ: Meine grüne Wiese. Geschichten und Zeichnungen
READ: Katz und Maus
READ: Die Blechtrommel
1998 - José Saramago (Portuguese)
1997 - Dario Fo (Italian playwright)
1996 - Wislawa Szymborska (Polish poet)
1995 - Seamus Heaney (Irish poet)
1994 - Kenzaburo Oe (Japanese)
1993 - Toni Morrison (American)
READ: Beloved
READ: The Bluest Eye
READ: Mercy
READ: Playing in the dark. Whiteness and the literary imagination
1992 - Derek Walcott (St. Lucian poet and playwright)
1991 - Nadine Gordimer (South African)
READ: Jump, and other short stories
READ: The late bourgeois world
READ: Beethoven was one-sixteenth black. And other stories
1990 - Octavio Paz (Mexican poet)

1989 - Camilo José Cela (Spanish)
1988 - Naguib Mahfouz (Egyptian)
1987 - Joseph Brodsky (Russian)
READ: Less than one. Selected essays
1986 - Wole Soyinka (Nigerian)
1985 - Claude Simon (French, b. Madagascar)
1984 - Jaroslav Seifert (Czech poet)
1983 - William Golding (English)
READ: The Lord of the Flies
READ: Pincher Martin
READ: Rites of Passage
READ: The Scorpion God
READ: Clonk! Clonk!
READ: Envoy Extraordinaire
READ: The paper men
READ: The spire
READ: The double tongue
1982 - Gabriel García Márquez (Columbian)
1981 - Elias Canetti (German)
1980 - Czeslaw Milosz (Polish)
READ: Proud to be a mammal. essays on war, faith and memory

1979 - Odysseus Elytis (Greek poet)
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer (Polish)
READ: The Estate
READ: Short Friday and other stories
READ: The last demon
READ: The family Moskat
1977 - Vicente Aleixandre (Spanish poet)
1976 - Saul Bellow (American)
READ: It all adds up. From the dim past to the uncertain future. A nonfiction collection
READ: Seize the day
READ: The Dean's December
1975 - Eugenio Montale (Italian poet)
1974 - Eyvind Johnson (Swedish)
1974 - Harry Martinson (Swedish)
1973 - Patrick White (Australian)
1972 - Heinrich Böll (German)
READ: Das Brot der frühen Jahre
READ: Weil die Stadt so fremd geworden ist ... Gespräche
1971 - Pablo Neruda (Chilean poet)
1970 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Russian)

1969 - Samuel Beckett (Irish playwright)
READ: Waiting for Godot
READ: The expelled
READ: The Beckett trilogy. Molloy, Malone dies & The unnamable
1968 - Yasunari Kawabata (Japanese)
1967 - Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemalan)
1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon (Israeli)
1966 - Nelly Sachs (German poet)
1965 - Mikhail Sholokhov (Russian)
1964 - Jean-Paul Sartre (French)
1963 - Giorgos Seferis (Greek poet)
1962 - John Steinbeck (American)
READ: The Winter of Our Discontent
READ: Of Mice and Men
READ: Cannery Row
READ: The Red Pony
READ: The Pearl
READ: Travels with Charley
READ: Sweet Thursday
READ: The moon is down
READ: The wayward bus
READ: The acts of King Arthur and his noble knights
READ: Burning bright
1961 - Ivo Andric (Bosnian)
1960 - Saint-John Perse (French poet)

1959 - Salvatore Quasimodo (Italian poet)
1958 - Boris Pasternak (Russian)
1957 - Albert Camus (French Algerian)
READ: La chute
READ: Lettres à un ami allemand
READ: L'été
READ: Jonas ou l'artiste au travail, suivi de "La pierre qui pousse"
1956 - Juan Ramón Jiménez (Spanish poet)
1955 - Halldór Laxness (Icelandic)
1954 - Ernest Hemingway (American)
READ: The Old Man and the Sea
READ: The Sun Also Rises
READ: A Farewell to Arms
READ: For Whom the Bell Tolls
READ: The Snows of Kilimanjaro
READ: The Fifth Column and four stories of the Spanish Civil War
READ: To have and have not
READ: Across the river and into the trees
READ: Green hills of Africa
READ: Men without women
READ: Death in the afternoon
READ: Fiesta. The sun also rises
READ: A moveable feast
1953 - Winston Churchill (British)
1952 - François Mauriac (French)
1951 - Pär Lagerkvist (Swedish)
1950 - Bertrand Russell (Welsh philosopher)
READ: Autobiography, 1872 - 1914
READ: Unpopular essays

1949 - William Faulkner (American)
READ: The Sound and the Fury
READ: As I Lay Dying
1948 - T.S. Eliot (American/British)
READ: The Waste Land
1947 - André Gide (French)
1946 - Hermann Hesse (German)
READ: Siddhartha
READ: Der Steppenwolf
READ: Der Zauberer. Fragmente zu einem Roman
READ: Die Heimkehr
READ: Schön ist die Jugend
READ: Diesseits
READ: Narziß und Goldmund
READ: Die Morgenlandfahrt
READ: Klingsors letzter Sommer
READ: Kurgast
READ: Peter Camenzind
READ: Die Nürnberger Reise
READ: Roßhalde
READ: Freunde
READ: Unterm Rad
READ: Demian. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend
1945 - Gabriela Mistral (Chilean poet)
1944 - Johannes V. Jensen (Danish)
1939 - Frans Eemil Sillanpää (Finnish)
1938 - Pearl Buck (American)
READ: The Good Earth
1937 - Roger Martin du Gard (French)
1936 - Eugene O’Neill (American playwright)
1934 - Luigi Pirandello (Italian)
1933 - Ivan Bunin (Russian)
1932 - John Galsworthy (British)
READ: The apple tree
1931 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt (Swedish poet)
1930 - Sinclair Lewis (American)
READ: Go East Young Man. Sinclair Lewis on Class in America
READ: Elmer Gantry
READ: It can't happen here
READ: Babbitt

1929 - Thomas Mann (German)
READ: Lotte in Weimar
READ: Der Tod in Venedig und andere Erzählungen
READ: Der Zauberberg
READ: Tonio Kröger
READ: Mario und der Zauberer
1928 - Sigrid Undset (Norwegian)
1927 - Henri Bergson (French philosopher)
1926 - Grazia Deledda (Italian)
1925 - George Bernard Shaw (Irish playwright)
READ: Pygmalion
READ: Major Barbara
READ: Saint Joan. A chronicle play in six scenes and an epilogue
1924 - Wladyslaw Reymont (Polish)
1923 - William Butler Yeats (Irish poet)
READ: The Celtic twilight
1922 - Jacinto Benavente (Spanish playwright)
1921 - Anatole France (French)
1920 - Knut Hamsun (Norwegian)

1919 - Carl Spitteler (German)
READ: Verhalend en essayistisch proza alsmede gedichten
READ: Imago
1917 - Karl Gjellerup (Danish)
1917 - Henrik Pontoppidan (Danish)
1916 - Verner von Heidenstam (Swedish)
1915 - Romain Rolland (French)
1913 - Rabindranath Tagore (Indian)
READ: Stray birds
READ: The gardener
1912 - Gerhart Hauptmann (German)
READ: Die Weber
1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgian)
1910 - Paul Heyse (German)
READ: Am Tiberufer
READ: Verhalend en essayistisch proza alsmede gedichten
1909 - Selma Lagerlöf (Swedish)
1908 - Rudolf Eucken (German philosopher)
1907 - Rudyard Kipling (English)
READ: Just-so stories
READ: Something of Myself
READ: Plain tales from the hills
1906 - Giosuè Carducci (Italian poet)
1905 - Henryk Sienkiewicz (Polish)
1904 - Frédéric Mistral (French, Occitan)
1904 - José Echegaray (Spanish dramatist)
1903 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (Norwegian)
1902 - Theodor Mommsen (German)
1901 - Sully Prudhomme (French poet)

It will take me some time to make it all beautiful and add works I have already read.

I will consider adding reviews, in as far as they were written.

>14 edwinbcn: I'm glad you joined the group, Edwin. I look forward to seeing which works you've read. I copied and pasted the reviews I had already written, but I didn't write reviews for a surprising number. Hopefully I'll do better moving forward.

006. The mystic masseur
Finished reading: 13 January 2023



Review:

V.S. Naipaul's first novel, The mystic masseur, is short and very readable, and is often cited as a humurous or comical story. Like his much of his early work it is set in Trinidad. The novel describes the life, or more particularly, the career of Ganesh Ramsumair. It soon becomes clear that his career is serendipitous and as a person he is a loafer. Early in the story his mother takes him to a masseur, who is more of a quack doctor. At some stage of the story, Ganesh thinks of becoming a masseur himself, although he doesn't. In fact, the story has very little to do with physical massage. It has much more to do with 'ego massage' particularly by Ramlogan, a local, illiterate shop owner who venerates Ganesh.

Hilarious as it may sound, the story seems to suggest that no matter how lazy Ganesh was bound to succeed through the unrelenting believe Ramlogan has vested in him. Even if you don't believe in yourself, success will come if at least one person believes in you.

Why I read this now: I picked up this book because Lisa started the new LT group Labfs39's Laureate Literature List

Rating:

Other books I have read by V.S. Naipaul:
Half a life
The Middle Passage. Impressions of five colonial societies
The loss of El Dorado. A colonial history
India. A wounded civilization
The suffrage of Elvira
Mr Stone and the Knights Companion
A flag on the island
The night watchman's occurrence book. And other comic inventions
Literary occasions
The masque of Africa. Glimpses of African belief
A writer's people. Ways of looking and feeling
Reading and writing. A personal account
Among the believers. An Islamic journey
Beyond belief. Islamic Excursions among the converted peoples
Miguel Street
Between father and son. Family letters

037. Thousand cranes
Finished reading: 11 March 2023



Review:
Yasunari Kawabata's novels hark back to a lost period of decorum and suppressing culture. The short novel contrasts the fleeting with what remains, the shortness of a lifetime with the longevity of objects, culture and ceremony. This is brought to the forefront in the tea ceremony and the use of age-old teaware, tea cups and other ceramics which have had a long history and were used by different people in the family. The stark contrast between the cherished heritage also highlights the pettiness of strive between people.

Kawabata is one of Japan's Nobel Prize winners, and the high quality of his writing, while transcending the specific Japanese cultural background to embrace universal life experience is proved by this short novel.

Source / edition: Penguin Modern Classics.

Why I read this now: I brought this back with me from China. I read this as part of participating in a group on LT.

Rating:

Other books I have read by Yasunari Kawabata:
Beauty and sadness

>17 edwinbcn: I enjoyed the only book I've read by Kawabata, Snow Country. The beautiful imagery makes me wish I could read the original. May I ask which LT group was reading this?

>18 labfs39: I meant to say that it is for this group.

047. Le jeune homme
Finished reading: 18 May 2023



Review:
Le jeune homme by Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux is a totally compelling and sweet work of prose. It must be said that it is very short. In my Gallimard edition just 26 pages, but in any standard pocket book it would probably fit on less than 10 pages. But with world-class literature, obviously, length is no criterion.

Annie Ernaux writes from her own experience in a way that is recognisable to a very large readership. I think with this work, Le jeune homme, it helps if you have ever fallen in love with a person more than 30 years younger than yourself, but even if you haven't Le jeune homme can be read and appreciated in various ways. For instance, the book obviously in some ways resembles Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, and part of the splendour are slight references to Venice and Capri.

The story suggests that this romance is a folly. There is some element of ridicule in the desire of the young man, and the mixture of seriousness and amusement on the part of the woman.

While the main character in the book is a lover, the story is also a reflective observation of young people. The obvious egoism of the young man is described without really condemning it (or him).

Whether it is justified or not to assume that the author is also the main character, the author suggests that the initiative lies with the woman, as one could say in terminating the relationship, and terminating the story, which could still mean the woman and the author are different people.

Source / edition: Gallimard (first edition?)

Why I read this now: Annie Ernaux won the Nobel Prize in 2022.

Rating:

049. First love, and other novellas
Finished reading: 28 May 2023



Review:

This volume contains four novellas by Samuel Beckett: "The End", "The Expelled", "The Calmative" and "First Love". In 1977 they were first published by Penguin Books as Four Novellas. Then, in from 1980, Penguin Books published these four novellas as The Expelled, and Other Novellas. This edition, which came out in 2000 with a new introduction, written by Gerry Dukes now bears the title First love, and Other Novellas, but they are still the same, short, four novellas.

Around 2010, Penguin Books also published a series of Penguin Mini. In that volume three novellas were published unde the title The expelled, the same novellas, only "The Calmative was left out". Besides, the mini-series came without introduction and notes.



I bought the mini edition in October 2012, and read it in 2017, unaware that I had already bought the Penguin Modern Classics edition, i.e. this edition, First love, and other novellas, in November 2011. I didn't like the three novellas when I read them in 2017, but decided to reread all of them while reading this edition.

However, I still do not like these novellas. For all the awe expressed in the introduction and the admiration others have for Beckett, I fail to appreciate these stories. I cannot grasp really what they are about or why they are special.

Source / edition: Penguin Modern Classics

Rating:

Other books I have read by Samuel Beckett:
The expelled
Waiting for Godot
The Beckett trilogy. Molloy, Malone dies & The unnamable

082. Passion simple
Finished reading: 19 augustus 2023



Review:
Although it would be naive to equal the narrator with the author, the suggestion that the work of Annie Ernaux is autobiographical is strong, and it is interesting to see that the narrators in Passion simple and Le jeune homme respond similarly to comparable situations. In both novels the narrator is attracted to a very selfish lover. While in Passion simple the narrator passionately desires this relationship, in Le jeune homme she is simply surprised and amused.

The writing style of Ernaux is very direct and very close to the skin. Probably since we have either experienced the theme and topic of the novel some time ourselves, or have seen or read it so many times in films, novels or pop songs, the experience in the novel is deeply recognizable to anyone, and the literary style of Ernaux seems to transcend gender, so that you can recognize yourself in her story.

These are the first two shorter works of fiction that I have read by Annie Ernaux and I am really looking forward to reading Les Annees (The years). Her other works also seem to pick up themes which are important to all of us, making for universal literature. Absolutely world-class literature.

Source / edition: Gallimard pocket.

Rating:

Other books I have read by Annie Ernaux:
Le jeune homme

083. Ravelstein
Finished reading: 19 August 2023



Review:
As noted by other reviewers, the novel Ravelstein consists of a very well-written first part followed by a boring, much less inspiring part. Basically, the second, larger part of the novel is so uninteresting that the reader feels lost, and the novel has little appeal. On the other hand, the first section of the novel reads very pleasantly, and from this part (retrospectively) the reader can glean that the novel is about Allan Bloom. However, in the remainder of the novel references or hints that the book is, or might be based on Bloom are so sparse or so specific, that that remains unclear. In as far as this is relevant to the story, Bloom as the main character of the book is not clear to the general readership.

I have had to read other novels by Bellow twice to understand them, but with the marked difference in quality between the first and second parts in the case of Ravelstein, I may have to read this one again, too.

Source / edition: Penguin Modern Classics

Rating:

Other books I have read by Saul Bellow:
It all adds up. From the dim past to the uncertain future. A nonfiction collection
Seize the day
The Dean's December

155. In dubious battle
Finished reading: 30 November 2023



Review:
In retrospect, In dubious battle is quite a baffling novel. The novel celebrates the then novel ways of uniting farm hands to stand up for their rights, describing the way Communists and unions organized and supported workers. The book was first published in 1936, at a time few people would have much knowledge about communism or the work of unions in general. It portrays both the policies and the politics of the land owners, the workers and the communists. The novel seems sceptical about all, neither side appears all good or all bad.

In dubious battle is very well-written, with a clear story and a straightforward plot. However, the writing style feels dated, and modern readers may feel uncomfortable about the tone of activism.

Rating:

152. Recitatif
Finished reading: 25 November 2023



Review:
Recitatif is Toni Morrison's only short story. In her excellent introduction, Zadie Smith epitomizes on this fact to emphasize the importance of Recitatif among Morrison's works.

As I pointed out in my review of Hoe het voelt om van kleur te zijn, it seems that African-American writers focus on matters quite different than writers in some other parts of the world. In this instance, I waas not rfeferring to the work of Zora Neale Hurston, but to that of other contributors to that edition, although under the growing influence of wokeism such themes are now spreading to authors in other parts of the world.

World literature includes numerous works of fiction in which, at least initially or for a large part of the work it is not clear whether a protagonist is male of female. Some authors even toy with this element.

Recitatif is a short fictional work in which it is not clear what ethnicity the two girls have. The work is apparently cleverly constructed to obscure any conclusive references, or simply no conclusive clues are given.

Zadie Smith's introduction (37 pages) is almost as long as Morrison's story (45 pages) to describe this. While it may be a special phenomenon in the overall work of Morrison, the fact in itself should not garner that much interest.

Rating:

024. Les années
Finished reading: 27 January 2024



Review:
Imagination falters when an idea is more important than art. Annie Ernaux is a great writer, but Les années is not her best book.

The idea of creating an impersonal biography seems a paradox. Biography is the genre par excellence to give an in-depthe description of a person. Postmodern writers experimented for years making the person irrelevant, or so it seemed. Numerous fictional biographies have been written about random, insignificant (fictional) charachters. In Ernaux's novel the person is completely absent, although it is widely believed to be autobiographical, and therefore the person is implied. However, this is an assumption. The main character merely resembles the author closely.

The impersonal character of the book means that a myriad of details is described: innumerous minor details, impressions, moments, piled up like a bric-a-brac. Readers may enjoy this as largely they see a parade of iconic moments from their own lives. Fortunately, the book is relatively thin.

However, the impersonal nature of the observations creates a great sense of detachment, and therefore, ultimately, Les années is a flawed novel, unless its function is to illustrate the connectedness within the unconnectedness. It is hard to feel anything for this novel. However, I do feel these negative feelings are what the novel is about.

Rating:

Other books I have read by Annie Ernaux:
Passion simple
Le jeune homme

>26 edwinbcn: The Years was the first book by Annie Ernaux that I read, and I liked it more than you did.

When I first started reading, the stream of events seemed like a list that would be dull reading, but I was drawn in immediately. Although the author seems to have stepped back from the events she describes, it is her point of view that provides the book's coherence and much of its pleasure, the perspective a left-wing intellectual who is aware of her own shortcomings and prejudices. There's humour and irony along with empathy and engagement.

I was also impressed by Happening (despite the mediocre translation), so will seek out A Man's Place and Simple Passion as well.

>27 pamelad:
When I first started reading The Years, I thought it was great, particularly the opening pages consisting of all the flash impressions.

Then, I watched a play, based on the book, by the International Theater Amsterdam (ITA). The play was in part grotesk and shocking, particularly the scenes about the abortion. I rarely see films or stage adaptations of books.

I think the smaller works are very personal, but also crafted in an excellent way. They simultaneously suggest that the works are autobiographical, but still confront us with the metacognition that the author and the main character are possibly merely close resemblances, that they are not the same.

In The Years I lacked that sense, and felt the work was very impersonal. I could not quite reconcile the idea that personalised events are depersonalised. Perhaps this was done, because many readers cannot separate the authorial voice from the non-autobiographical main characters (even though the events are or were real events in the life of the author).

032. Kaspar
Finished reading: 4 February 2024



Review:
Kaspar by Peter Handke is a play, but the stage directions are so extensive that at first glance the book seems to be experiimental prose, and perhaps it could be regarded as such. Because surely, as a play it would be considered experimental, and the play mainly consists of a very long monologue. The text of the monologue would also be considered experimental of avant-garde, as it often lacks coherence and consists of many repetitions. While as a play it is very hard to read, reading the work as a prose piece makes it easier. Then, too, the synchronicity of the stage directions and the texts is difficult.

The figure of Kaspar Hauser is a cult phenomenon from Nineteenth century Germany, that has inspired many artists. There is an interesting page on Kaspar Hauser on Wikipedia.

Rating: