Johann Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621–1676)

Sí, es una novela picaresca, en el sentido de que el protagonista, de incierto nacimiento, tiene que buscarse la vida y lo mismo le va bien que mal. Simplicius Simplicissimus (es un nombre impostado, porque él mismo ignora su verdadero nombre hasta más o menos la mitad del libro) es educado por un eremita y luego pasa la mayor parte de su vida en el ejército, cambiando de bando como de camisa y con épocas más o menos largas dedicado a otras cosas variopintas, como pide el género. Esta edición incluye una "Continuatio", publicada años después en vista del éxito del libro principal. Hacia el final de este y en la propia "Continuatio" el nivel va bajando sensiblemente, con largos sermones, situaciones imaginarias o inverosímiles y, al final, una estancia en una isla desierta, claro antecedente de Robinson Crusoe. Los primeros libros, más realistas y animados, me han parecido más divertidos.… (mere)

A very mixed bag of story. Its split into five sections plus some extra stories which we'll call the appendix but before getting into the parts a brief general overview.
So the writings good and very easy to read at least in the translation i had. I think the translator is a 'William Heinemann' but that could be the publisher, i got it from Project Gutenberg.
Its mostly a biography and history with satire and comedy elements, there tends to be some quite witty lines every so often.
One of the best things is the sprinkling of whackiness, once in a while a wizard, fortune teller, ghost, witch or other bizarre character will show up in this otherwise normal story, which for me was always a pleasent experience.
Sidenote, the version i had skipped a couple of pieces, one involving our hero seducing some women and the other a trip to an underwater kingdom! Really! of all the stuff that could have been left out of this he skips the fish people.. that was annoying.

Oh yes before i forget this is set during the Thirty Years War which i know nothing about. However based on this book it seems to have involved at least two factions of germans as well as the Swedes, and a little bit of involvement from some croatians and maybe some Swiss, possibly some French aswell.

One of the odd things is that no one here seems to be fighting for a cause they switch sides at the drop of the hat. Theres no patriotism, its a very in the trenches viewpoint which is pretty intresting.
Lastly the protagonists personality and especially his religious tendencies vacillate wildly and ridiculously throughout.

Anyway on to the individual parts/books:

Book 1: Out hero starts off as a lovable idiot like Forest Gump or the [b:The Good Soldier Švejk|7629|The Good Soldier Švejk|Jaroslav Hašek|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1468884268s/7629.jpg|318160], which allows him (and the reader) to get through some truly horrific war scenes. The term 'rape and pillage' doesn't even come close.
By far the most brutal and interesting parts of the story.

Book 2: Our hero changes from lovable idiot to an innocent and religious savant , like an Omish Sheldon Cooper.

Book 3: Another change this time into a military genius, like some combination of Sharp, Robin Hood and Omar Little from 'the Wire'. I did not see that coming.
Also all of the horrors of war are now completely forgotten about since our hero is now a soldier. It becomes the most Disneyfied version of a military conflict.

Book 4: Retiring mostly from the army our hero takes on about every job known at this time of history. Its a bit of a mess but there is some good satire here and there.

Book 5: The story continues to drift about and seems to get faster and faster. Seriously, at one point we end up back in the army promoted, fight in a battle, wounded, retired again and moved to Switzerland; in the space of about 2 pages.
I guess the author must have been getting as impatient to end this thing as i was.

Appendices: But later a few additional stories were found, the main one being a desert island adventure. I kind of skimmed these but the island story does have some more of those wacky moments which i like.

Overall, a lot of little bits of stories strung together, the early books probably superior to the latter ones but the author has a lot of neat bits scattered throughout.… (mere)