The Story of Serapion (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffman
- First Published: 1819
- Type of Plot: Gothic
- Time of Work: The early nineteenth century
- Setting: Germany
- Principal Characters: The storyteller, Priest Serapion
- Genres: Short fiction, Gothic fiction
- Subjects: Hermits, Mental illness, Romanticism, Isolation, Rationalism
- Locales: Germany
The Story
Lost in a thick forest somewhere in the South of Germany, the storyteller happens on a long-bearded hermit, from whom he asks directions to the nearby village of B——. He is puzzled by the reply, though, for the hermit refers to the forest as a desert and recommends that he follow a friend to Alexandria, which is in Egypt, not Germany.
From a traveler on the road he later learns that the odd fellow is known to the villagers as Priest Serapion, a kindly gentleman who is “not quite right in his head.” Dr. S—— provides more background, explaining that...
[The entire page is 1578 words long]
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