As a sensitive, disabled young composer and musician, the narrator, Kuhn, is drawn to a sensual singer named Gertrude through their mutual love of music. Slowly he becomes consumed by an enduring passion for her, the fruits of which inspire him to compose his great work. His love remains unrequited, however, because Gertrude has eyes for another man; his deeply cynical friend, Muoth, the talented operatic singer, whom Kuhn fears as much as he admires for his destructive nature.
Gertrude is an effortlessly reflective and readable bildungsroman, full of Hesse's subtle and significant insights into the human soul.
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