German Literature

Conflict between father and son is one of the oldest themes in literature, and in this open letter to his father - a letter which was never sent - Kafka tries to come to terms with one of the most deeply rooted obsessions of his troubled soul....
By: Franz Kafka

The son of a heinous sinner, Medardus is brought up in a monastery to atone for his father’s wicked ways. However, after succumbing to temptation, Medardus himself is lured into a life of sin. A labyrinthine plot sees him embarking on a fantastical...
By: E.T.A. Hoffman

Based on a true story, The Jew's Beech centres on two brutal murders in rural Westphalia - the first of a local forester and the second of a Jewish moneylender near a beech tree - and the impact these events have on the life of Friedrich Mergel, a...
By: Annette von Droste Hülshoff

Unsuccessful in his endeavours, the young and naive Peter Schlemihl seals a pact with the Devil in which he exchanges his shadow for the purse of Fortunatus, thereby gaining everlasting riches. But when he is ridiculed, persecuted and hated for...
By: Adelbert von Chamisso

Set against the strikingly beautiful backdrop of the Vosges mountains, Lenz tells the tale of the real-life writer J.M.R. Lenz’s nineteen-day stay in Waldersbach in 1778, describing his wanderings around the mountainous surroundings and his...
By: Georg Büchner

Eichendorff's prose masterpiece - a picaresque account of the wanderings of a young man who leaves home after a row with his father, and who eventually finds love with the girl of his dreams - is one of the best-known classics of German literature....
By: Joseph von Eichendorff

While on a journey with his wife to Prague for the opening night of Don Giovanni , Mozart is caught picking an orange on the grounds of a stately home. But when the resident family find out who they are dealing with, they are delighted to be in the...
By: Eduard Mörike

These five plays provide an excellent introduction to Kaiser's vision of the regeneration of man, which he illustrated in his works by a total paring down of detail, penetrating to the core of the matter and revealing man's true potential. In From...
By: Georg Kaiser

A Village Romeo and Juliet is a bitter-sweet tragedy telling the tale of two young lovers kept apart by a family feud. Inspired by the suicides of two real-life sweethearts and set in rural Switzerland, it evokes the overwhelming beauty of young...
By: Gottfried Keller