The Project Gutenberg EBook of The German Classics Of The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries, Volume 12, by Various

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Title: The German Classics Of The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries, Volume 12

Author: Various

Release Date: December 26, 2004 [EBook #14470]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GERMAN CLASSICS, V12 ***

Produced by Stan Goodman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

VOLUME XII

GUSTAV FREYTAG THEODOR FONTANE

  [Illustration: FREDERICK THE GREAT PLAYING THE FLUTE
  From the Painting by Adolph von Menzel]

THE GERMAN CLASSICS OF THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURY

  Masterpieces of German Literature
  TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH

  EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
  KUNO FRANCKE, PH.D., LL.D., LITT.D.
  Professor of the History of German Culture,
  Emeritus, and Honorary Curator of the Germanic Museum,
  Harvard University

  ASSISTANT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
  WILLIAM GUILD HOWARD, A.M.
  Professor of German, Harvard University

In Twenty Volumes Illustrated

  ALBANY, N.Y.
  J.B. LYON COMPANY
  PUBLISHERS
  Copyright 1914

CONTRIBUTORS AND TRANSLATORS

VOLUME XII

Special Writers

ERNEST F. HENDERSON, Ph.D., L.H.D., Author of The History of Germany in the Middle Ages; Short History of Germany, etc.: The Life of Gustav Freytag.

WILLIAM A. COOPER, A.M., Associate Professor of German, Leland
Stanford Junior University: The Life of Theodor Fontane.

Translators

ERNEST F. HENDERSON, Ph.D., L.H.D., Author of The History of Germany in the Middle Ages; Short History of Germany, etc.: The Journalists.

WILLIAM A. COOPER, A.M., Associate Professor of German, Leland
Stanford Junior University: Effi Briest; Extracts from "My Childhood
Days."

E.H. BABBITT, A.B., Assistant Professor of German, Tufts College:
Doctor Luther; Frederick the Great.

MARGARETE MÜNSTERBERG:

Sir Ribbeck of Ribbeck; The Bridge by the Tay.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME XII

GUSTAV FREYTAG

The Life of Gustav Freytag. By Ernest F. Henderson

The Journalists. Translated by Ernest F. Henderson

Doctor Luther. Translated by E.H. Babbitt

Frederick the Great. Translated by E.H. Babbitt

THEODOR FONTANE

The Life of Theodor Fontane. By William A. Cooper

Effi Briest. Translated by William A. Cooper

Extracts from "My Childhood Days." Translated by William A. Cooper

Sir Ribbeck of Ribbeck. Translated by Margarete Münsterberg

The Bridge by the Tay. Translated by Margarete Münsterberg

ILLUSTRATIONS—VOLUME XII

Frederick the Great Playing the Flute.
  By Adolph von Menzel. Frontispiece

Gustav Freytag. By Stauffer-Bern

At the Concert. By Adolph von Menzel

Nature Enthusiasts. By Adolph von Menzel

On the Terrace. By Adolph von Menzel

In the Beergarden. By Adolph von Menzel

Lunch Buffet at Kissingen. By Adolph von Menzel

Luther Monument at Worms. By Ernst Rietschel

Frederick William I Inspecting a School. By Adolph von Menzel

Court Ball at Rheinsberg. By Adolph von Menzel

Frederick the Great and His Round Table. By Adolph von Menzel

Frederick the Great on a Pleasure Trip. By Adolph von Menzel

Theodor Fontane. By Hanns Fechner

Fontane Monument at Neu-Ruppin

A Sunday in the Garden of the Tuileries. By Adolph von Menzel

Divine Service in the Woods at Kösen. By Adolph von Menzel

A Street Scene at Paris. By Adolph von Menzel

Procession at Gastein. By Adolph von Menzel

High Altar at Salzburg. By Adolph von Menzel

Bathing Boys. By Adolph von Menzel

Frau von Schleinitz "At Home." By Adolph von Menzel

Supper at a Court Ball. By Adolph von Menzel

EDITOR'S NOTE

This volume, containing representative works by two of the foremost realists of midcentury German literature, Freytag and Fontane, brings, as an artistic parallel, selections from the work of the greatest realist of midcentury German painting: Adolph von Menzel.

KUNO FRANCKE.

THE LIFE OF GUSTAV FREYTAG

By ERNEST F. HENDERSON, PH.D., L.H.D.

Author of A History of Germany in the Middle Ages; A Short History of
Germany, etc.

It is difficult to assign to Gustav Freytag his exact niche in the hall of fame, because of his many-sidedness. He wrote one novel of which the statement has been made by an eminent French critic that no book in the German language, with the exception of the Bible, has enjoyed in its day so wide a circulation; he wrote one comedy which for years was more frequently played than any other on the German stage; he wrote a series of historical sketches—Pictures of the German Past he calls them—which hold a unique place in German literature, being as charming in style as they are sound in scholarship. Add to these a work on the principles of dramatic criticism that is referred to with respect by the very latest writers on the subject, an important biography, a second very successful novel, and a series of six historical romances that vary in interest, indeed, but that are a noble monument to his own nation and that, alone, would have made him famous.

As a novelist Freytag is often compared with Charles Dickens, largely on account of the humor that so frequently breaks forth from his pages. It is a different kind of humor, not so obstreperous, not so exaggerated, but it helps to lighten the whole in much the same way. One moment it is an incongruous simile, at another a bit of sly satire; now infinitely small things are spoken of as though they were great, and again we have the reverse.

It is in his famous comedy, The Journalists, which appeared in 1853, that Freytag displays his humor to its best advantage. Some of the situations themselves, without being farcical, are exceedingly amusing, as when