Heinrich von Kleist's Political Writings and Other Supplements to His Works

Heinrich von KleistProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.9
Word count
259K words
Chapters
26

Tags

Foreign Language Books Politics Drama TheoryPolitical WritingLiterary GiantsIntellectual CommentaryGerman RomanticismModern Germany

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Heinrich von Kleist's politische Schriften und andere Nachträge zu seinen WerkenAuthor: Kleist, Heinrich von, 1777-1811,Language: German, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Jan 20, 2016

Editor's review

This volume collects Kleist's political writings along with several supplementary pieces to his works, an important German-language source for understanding the intellectual profile of this German author. Kleist is known for his dramas and novellas, and his political writing is often closely intertwined with the crises of his age, national consciousness, and his personal circumstances; these texts help readers see concerns and modes of argument beyond his literary creation. As a public-domain electronic text, it is better suited to research or extended reading than to beginners. Its value lies in supplementing understanding of Kleist's works and background on the one hand, and in observing the rhetoric and issues of German political prose from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century on the other. Readers with some German and a basic familiarity with Prussian reform and the German intellectual climate of the Napoleonic Wars will find the text more rewarding.

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Reading tips

  1. Read Kleist's major works first, then approach the political essays here to understand the continuity of his thought.
  2. While reading, consult the timeline of the Napoleonic Wars and Prussian reform, and note the current events referenced in the texts.
  3. Read the political essays alongside his letters of the same period to sense the relation between his argumentative tone and personal circumstances.
  4. After each piece, write a brief summary distinguishing current-affairs commentary, literary supplements, and intellectual essays.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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  11. 11
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FAQ

What kinds of texts by Kleist does this book contain? According to the title and available information, the book collects Kleist's political writings and several supplementary texts to his works; it is supplementary material to his oeuvre rather than a single complete drama or novella. Readers may treat it as extended material for understanding Kleist's creative background and intellectual concerns.
Can I read this book without knowing German? This is a German public-domain text, and direct reading is difficult without German. It is advisable first to find a Chinese translation or research overview of Kleist's political writings, grasp the basic content and background, and then decide whether to read the German original with reference works.
What historical background should I know before reading? A familiarity with the Napoleonic Wars, Prussian reform, and the national and cultural debates in German-speaking lands in the early nineteenth century is recommended. Kleist's political writing is closely tied to these events and this atmosphere; with basic background, the positions, rhetoric, and anxiety in the texts are easier to grasp.
Is this book suitable as an introduction to Kleist? Not very. It consists of political essays and supplementary texts, argumentative and documentary in character, and lacks the representative texts and systematic guidance an introduction needs. A safer path is to read Kleist's famous dramas or novellas first, then use this book as extension and supplement.

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About the author

Heinrich von Kleist Author · German · 1777–1811

Heinrich von Kleist (1777–1811) was a German dramatist and novelist born into a Prussian officer's family. His plays, such as Der Zerbrochene Krug, Penthesilea, Prinz Friedrich von Homburg, and Das Käthchen von Heilbronn, along with stories like Michael Kohlhaas and The Marquise of O, often explore the conflict between reason and emotion and the dialectic of appearance and essence. Though his fame was limited during his lifetime, later generations have regarded him as one of the most important and complex writers in German literary history. He took his own life at the Wannsee in 1811. Public information is limited, so readers should focus on his subjects and style.