Hyperion, or the Hermit in Greece

Abstract

Friedrich Hölderlin’s only novel, Hyperion (1797–99), is a fi c� onal epistolary autobiography that juxtaposes narra� on with cri� cal refl ec� on. Returning to Greece a� er German exile, following his part in the abor� ve uprising against the occupying Turks (1770), and his failure as both a lover and a revolu� onary, Hyperion assumes a hermi� c existence, during which he writes his le� ers. Confron� ng and commen� ng on his own past, with all its joy and grief, the narrator undergoes a transforma� on that culminates in the realisa� on of his true voca� on.