The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 04

A collection of English translations places Heinrich von Kleist beside several writers of early German Romantic literature. Its contents range across stories, poems, plays and literary criticism, with biographical introductions to selected authors. Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas and The Prince of Homburg appear alongside writing by Jean Paul, Wilhelm von Humboldt, the Schlegel brothers, Novalis, Friedrich Hölderlin and Ludwig Tieck. The editor also explains how the illustrations connect German painting with the literary selections.

The opening biography follows Jean Paul's childhood in village surroundings, his family's debts and his enthusiasm for learning. In the later excerpt from Tieck's Fair Eckbert, a quiet castle in the Hartz Mountains becomes the setting for a friendship between Eckbert and Philip Walther. These passages give the anthology both a personal and a fictional dimension. Readers can compare different literary forms while seeing how the collection introduces the writers and their work.