Jakob von Gunten. Ein Tagebuch

Jakob von Gunten. Ein Tagebuch, a novel by R. Walser, published in 1909. Jakob, the youngest member of a family of ancient lineage, enrols at the Institute Benjamenta, a small boarding-school, apparently situated in Berlin, in which boys are trained in the art of domestic service. His aim is to escape from his illustrious and prosperous family, whose tradition of excellence threatens to stifle him, and to learn to live in humble service and self-discovery. The headmaster, Benjamenta, and his sister Lisa, the teacher, are in their different ways strange and bewildering personalities, and are a source of fascination and inspiration for the observant Jakob. The fascination is mutual, however, and the Benjamentas become strangely dependent on Jakob as the novel progresses. It gradually transpires that the school is in a state of decline, and with Lisa's death comes its final dissolution. The pupils disperse, but Jakob follows Benjamenta into a new way of life, with dreams of finding a cultural desert far away from Western civilization and culture.

Impressionism and surrealism intertwine in this work, which, highly thought of by Kafka, may be seen as a parody of the Bildungsroman.