Grimmelshausen's grotesque realism is the primary literary testimony of the Thirty Years' War--and the human folly implicit in it--by an errant soldier of fortune. Influenced by the Spanish picaresque novel, the saga of Simplicius takes its hero through wars, marriages, and travels that culminate on an uncharted South Atlantic island.Walter Wallich, in this translation, aptly captures the zest, the pageantry and the humor of the original. He has also written a special postscript, with revealing sidelights on Grimmelshausen, whose life corresponded in many way to that of his hero.