Das Haidedorf

von

Adalbert Stifter

EDITED FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS

BY

OTTO HELLER

professor of the German language and literature, Washington University

PREFACE.

If any prose-writer may be called a poet, none is more worthy of that name than

Adalbert Stifter. And, unless it be a requirement that, to be ranked as classic, a

writer must be dead for many years, Stifter is entitled to an honorable place

among the classic writers of Germany. Not all he has written bears the stamp of

beauty and genius, but at his best he is truly great, and of his best we have a

great deal.

Adalbert Stifter was born in Oberplan, Bohemia, October 23d, 1806. His father

was a poor linen-weaver who was killed by an accident when the boy was only

ten years old. An uncle assumed charge of his education and sent him to the

monastic Latin School at Kremsmünster. His education was completed in

Vienna, whither he went in 1826, principally to study history and philosophy, but

also to cultivate his love of nature by the pursuit of natural science and

landscape-painting. His love for nature remained throughout his life the most

characteristic trait of the man. In all his works, but especially in his "Studien," he

showed himself to be a painter of words who has only one equal in German

Literature--Paul Heyse. His love of detail confined him to one form of literary

production, the short novel. And even within these narrow limits Stifter's works

show little action. But for this we are amply compensated by the simple beauty

of his diction, its calm moderated tone, with never a word superfluous or

lacking, the manly nobility of his sentiment, and the almost womanly delicacy of

his perception. No one can read "Das Haidedorf" without feeling the poet's love

for man and nature.