author
Adelbert von Chamisso
1781–1838
A French-born writer who made his life in Prussia, he is best remembered for the haunting tale Peter Schlemihl, about a man who sells his shadow. He was also a serious botanist, and that mix of imagination and observation gives his work a distinctive charm.
6 Audiobooks
Peter Schlemihl
by Adelbert von Chamisso
Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte
by Adelbert von Chamisso
The Marvellous History of the Shadowless Man, and The Cold Heart
by Adelbert von Chamisso, Wilhelm Hauff
Peter Schlemihl
by Adelbert von Chamisso
Pietari Schlemihl'in eriskummalliset elämänvaiheet
by Adelbert von Chamisso
La mirinda historio de Petro Schlemihl
by Adelbert von Chamisso
About the author
Born in 1781 at the family estate in Champagne, Adelbert von Chamisso fled France with his aristocratic family during the Revolution and grew up in Berlin. He served in the Prussian army as a young man, but literature became central to his life, and he eventually wrote in German rather than French.
Chamisso’s lasting literary fame rests above all on Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (Peter Schlemihl’s Remarkable Story), first published in 1814. The story’s strange bargain and melancholy tone made it one of the memorable fantasy works of the Romantic era, and his poems also earned a wide readership.
He was more than a poet and storyteller. Chamisso also worked as a botanist and took part in a round-the-world expedition in the 1810s, studying and describing plant life. That double identity—poet and scientist—helps explain why his writing can feel both dreamy and sharply observant at the same time.