There is … one aspect of Glasperlenspiel which merits more than the rather cursory treatment it has received and which may contribute to a fuller appreciation of the fate of the central figure, Josef Knecht. I shall concern myself with the three Lebensläufe [biographical sketchs] appended to the main narrative….

The students of the province of Kastalien in Glasperlenspiel are granted an indefinite period of time for independent study after they have completed their years of formal education…. The only restriction placed on their activity is the requirement of composing each year a fictitious autobiography in which they portray themselves as imaginary persons, as they would have lived in some particular age in the past…. Josef Knecht wrote at least three of these fictitious autobiographies during his years of independent study. It is known too that he had made extensive preliminary studies for a fourth which was never...