Columbus: Don Quixote of the Seas

by Jakob Wassermann

Historical biography of the life, struggles, experiences and the discoveries of Christopher Columbus. Material extracted from the writings and journals of Christopher Columbus. Originally written in German under the title "Christoph Columbus: Der Don Quichote Des Ozeans" and published in Germany in 1929.
Author, S. Fischer Berlag, A.G. Translated from German by Eric Sutton.

Genres: History

287 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1930

About the author

Jakob Wassermann (1873 – 1934) was a German writer and novelist of Jewish descent.

Born in Fürth, he was the son of a shopkeeper and lost his mother at an early age. He showed literary interest early and published various pieces in small newspapers. Because his father was reluctant to support his literary ambitions, he began a short-lived apprenticeship with a businessman in Vienna after graduation.

He completed his military service in Nuremberg. Afterward, he stayed in southern Germany and in Switzerland. In 1894 he moved to Munich. Here he worked as a secretary and later as a copy editor at the paper Simplicissimus. Around this time he also became acquainted with other writers Rainer Maria Rilke, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Thomas Mann.
In 1896 he released his first novel, Melusine. Interestingly, his last name (Wassermann) means "water-man" in German; a "Melusine" (or "Melusina") is a figure of European legends and folklore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers.
From 1898 he was a theater critic in Vienna. In 1901 he married Julie Speyer, whom he divorced in 1915. Three years later he was married again to Marta Karlweis.

After 1906, he lived alternatively in Vienna or at Altaussee in der Steiermark where he died in 1934 after a severe illness.

In 1926, he was elected to the Prussian Academy of Art. He resigned in 1933, narrowly avoiding an expulsion by the Nazis. In the same year, his books were banned in Germany owing to his Jewish ancestry.

Wassermann's work includes poetry, essays, novels, and short stories. His most important works are considered the novel Der Fall Maurizius (1928) and the autobiography, My Life as German and Jew (Mein Weg als Deutscher und Jude) (1921), in which he discussed the tense relationship between his German and Jewish identities.

Reviews

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wassermann über Christoph Columbus. Den Don Quichote des Ozeans glaubt Wassermann in Columbus auszumachen. Darauf reitet er ganz schön herum. Und natürlich entdeckt er dann auch Rosinanten und Sancho Pansas. Das kommt mir etwas übertrieben vor. Aber schon erstaunlich wie sehr Columbus auf seiner fixen Idee, Indien entdeckt zu haben bestanden hat. So mussten seine Leute schwören, Kuba sei ohne Zweifel das Festland.

Was mich erstaunt hat, wie früh und brutal die Ausbeutung und Vernichtung der Indios begann. Und der einzige mit etwas Anstand plädiert erfolgreich dafür, Sklaven aus Afrika herzuholen.

[Dimitri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an "emotional biography" of Christopher Columbus written from the very personal perspective of the author. The writer creates a psychological profile for Columbus in order to interpret his various actions. As the title suggests, he bases his Columbus on Cervantes' celebrated hero. The parallelism is patently unflattering both for Columbus and Quixote, but this does not mean that it is necessarily wrong. One thing that annoyed me in this book is that the author tries to force-feed his viewpoint on the readers without giving them space to draw their own conclusion. Another annoying feature is the author's frequent philosophical, or purely emotional, departures from the narrative.
Nevertheless, the overall picture the author paints makes a an enjoyable story and the events described, when stripped of the emotional garnish, appear to be historically accurate. Personally, in spite of my objections to the presentation style, I find Wassemann's interpretation of Columbus quite convincing. His countless mistakes, his rigid fixations, and his endless ranting letters bathed in mysticism, reveal a deeply disturbed personality bordering on - or having crossed into insanity. His personality makes him a very unlikely hero even in the cruel and schizophrenic time that he lived. His story is a dire reminder of our tendency to idealize the past, and hide our past horrors under a veil of glamor and glory, thus propagating these same horrors through the centuries. (There! Why shouldn't I also indulge in some pseudo-philosophical ranting?)

[Bella Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ο Jakob Wassermann βουτάει στα προσωπικά γραπτά και τα ημερολόγια του μεγάλου θαλασσοπόρου, για να μας παρουσιάσει μια ιστορική βιογραφία της ζωής του, των αγώνων, των εμπειριών και των ανακαλύψεών του. Είναι μια προσπάθεια να δούμε τον Κολόμβο όχι ως έναν απλό εξερευνητή, αλλά ως τον "Δον Κιχώτη του Ωκεανού" – έναν οραματιστή που πάλεψε ενάντια στα ρεύματα της εποχής του. Περιμένετε μια εις βάθος ματιά στο ποιος ήταν πραγματικά αυτός ο αμφιλεγόμενος άντρας.
Μας μιλάει για το πώς η πίστη σε ένα όραμα μπορεί να σε κάνει είτε ήρωα είτε τρελό, και πώς η ιστορία κρίνει τελικά τους ανθρώπους, συχνά άδικα.
Το ύφος γραφής του Wassermann είναι σοβαρό, μελετημένο και βαθιά λογοτεχνικό. Δεν είναι ένα απλό, γρήγορο σαν ντοκιμαντέρ . Πλούσια, ατμοσφαιρική γλώσσα και μια εσωτερική, ψυχογραφική προσέγγιση του χαρακτήρα του Κολόμβου .
Ο πρωταγωνιστής είναι φυσικά ο Χριστόφορος Κολόμβος, που παρουσιάζεται ως ένας περίπλοκος, ίσως και μοναχικός, οραματιστής. Δεν είναι ο αψεγάδιαστος ήρωας των παιδικών βιβλίων, αλλά ένας άνθρωπος με πάθη, εμμονές, λάθη και μια ακατάπαυστη δίψα για ανακάλυψη και αναγνώριση.
Είναι ένα βιβλίο που, ειλικρινά, έχει μια φοβερή, κλασική πρόζα και μας μιλάει άριστα για τη νοοτροπία της εποχής και τις γεωγραφικές ιδέες του 15ου αιώνα. Του βάζω δύο αστέρια μείον, γιατί η εμμονή του συγγραφέα να επιβάλει τη δική του οπτική και οι συχνές, συναισθηματικές παρεμβάσεις του αδικούν την κατά τα άλλα ενδιαφέρουσα ιστορική αφήγηση .
Βαθύ και Λογοτεχνικό

[BJ Wright]

It must have been some inner constraint that caused him to pass over this man's name in silence in all his later letters and papers. As he felt himself to be an instrument in the hand of a Higher Power, no suspicion must be allowed to arise that he had availed himself of any earthly help; it would have shattered, in himself above all, the mystical conviction of his vocation. The background of his character leads one to assume that he obstinately tried to stifle the recollection of the support, and even inspiration, given to him by a nature nobler than his own. What the world thought of this he cared little. Gratitude is an element in a highly personal morality. Ingratitude does not always arise from coarseness of mind or from self-conceit; the ungrateful man is often a kind of moral sleepwalker who forgets the way he had come and the place whence he started.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be read by every American. Revisionist history has infiltrated the curriculum of every public school and college. Christopher Columbus has been harshly and wrongly criticised in the writings of today. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was a great Christian man of faith, integrity and a matchless moral character. He loved and served God, was directed by the Holy Ghost, which he himself denotes in his journals. He acted in all accordance to faith, virtue and propriety in his work and discoveries. He was loved by the natives of the lands he discovered, as well as his sons who traveled with him. He spent his life protecting and serving the natives with love and kindness.

[Lette Hass · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un clásico. Una prosa excelente que nos habla de la mentalidad de aquel cartógrafo del siglo XV, así como las ideas 'geográficas' de aquel tiempo. "El conocer asusta, y la voluntad ciega solo puede impulsar inevitablemente hacia delante cuando aún no es de día y reina la penumbra".