This novel is considered by most European critics the finest and most important of Wassermann s novels. It now makes its first appearance in English. Caspar Hauser, that strange figure which puzzled Europe in the years from 1823, when he first appeared, to 1833, when he met his inexplicable death, has remained an unsolved mystery to this day. There is a considerable body of literature in all languages on the subject; bitter and violent sides have been taken as to who he was; yet the evidence is in complete confusion. On the one hand it is claimed that he was a deliberate imposter, while many...