Die ganze Geschichte meines gleichgültigen Lebens.

[The whole story of my immaterial life. Volume 1. 1816 – 1828. Adolescence.]
Franz Simon Meyer (1799 – 1871) was a man like the century he lived in: In constant conflict between roaring pleasures and quiet happiness, between vertiginous progress and insistence on tradition, between proud patriotism and passionate love for Europe, troubled by gnawing doubts, shaken by inner wars and outer earthquakes, in search of meaning and harmony.

Since age 16 until his death, the banker from Baden in the southwest of Germany once a year confided to paper the things that had moved him in the previous twelve months. Over the course of 55 years, his quill created a manuscript of around 1.500 pages, enriched by drawings, etchings, and letters. These pages contain all his hopes and dreams, his joy and his pain, his friendships and his loves, his whole personality – in other words, his whole life.

This first volume contains his recollections about the dramatic history of his family, his travels to Switzerland, Milan, Paris, London, and the industrialized north of England as well as his annual reports until 1828.

A book about time, about identity, and the pursuit of happiness.