Johann Von Goethe

Fredrich Schiller

E.T.A. Hoffman

Heinrich von Kleist

Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué

Interesting post. I have heard of Goethe but not any of the others. What are some of their more famous works? Why did you choose them? I remember a previous post of yours about Kleist (I think) writing great horror. Am I right?  This time period in literature is new to me so I am looking forward to hearing more of your views on it.

Each of these men wrote during the "Romanticism" period in European literature.

"The movement stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities"(wikipedia)

Heinrich von Kleist is a favorite of mine.

I have read only "Werther" Johann Von Goethe and  E.T.A. Hoffman. I'd recommend them both and the The Best Tales of Hoffmann :: E.T.A. Hoffmann is now on my shelf. The 18th century imagination has captured my attention lately, very rough it was, tolerant of lots of cheating and brawlilng and not doing one's duty. I mean, the Victorains had to be reacting against something.

If only I had some credits left Matt B., I would request your ETA. Hoffman book. Oh well...

I read Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther and Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas and Marquise of O-.  I've read bits of Faust and always meant to finish it, but haven't yet.  I wasn't really a fan of Kleist.

For me it was always the context of Kleist's personal life that drove any interest in me to read his stories.

Schiller's play Mary Stuart has been done a lot recently - there have been a few interesting adaptations.   Schiller also wrote the text for Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".

There's also lots of fun Hoffman business in Robertson Davies' The Lyre of Orpheus (the third book in the Cornish trilogy).