Adelbert and Bastel: or, Every man in his place. A story for boys.

About this book

"Adelbert and Bastel" by Franz Hoffmann is a didactic children's novel written in the mid-19th century. It contrasts a wealthy Hamburg merchant’s imaginative son with a charcoal-burner’s sturdy boy from the Harz to examine vocation, class, and character under the moral theme “Every man in his place.” Adventure and misadventure teach prudence, humility, and industry, while Christian charity frames the adults’ guidance.

The opening of the novel follows Adelbert, indulged yet well-meaning, whose romantic fancies repeatedly collide with reality: a failed “Robinson Crusoe” experiment in his garden hut and a storm at sea that ends in seasickness. Granted a spring journey to the Harz for his birthday, he is dazzled by nature, wanders off alone, gets lost, falls into a stream, and is taken in by the kindly charcoal-burner Severin, his wife, and their capable son Bastel. Bastel guides him through forest life—landing a giant trout, snaring a blackbird, and ferreting rabbits—before a fierce storm drives them back to the cottage. The next day Adelbert’s bungled attempt at splitting logs cures his wish to be a forester, just as his anxious parents arrive; grateful, they seek to repay the family’s kindness. Herr Brockmann offers to educate Bastel in Hamburg, and after a tender family debate the parents consent. Chapter three then begins Bastel’s transplant to the city, where he is awed and awkward amid wealth and new customs, while Adelbert—now on home ground—helps him adjust.