Paul Heyse, a conspicuous figure in the literary life of modern Germany, is a master of the peculiar type of narrative art which the Germans call Novelle, and which, though it has points in common with the American short-story, differs from it in some essentials. By his famous definition of the Novelle as a short tale “with a silhouette,” Heyse emphasized the necessary of concentration and elimination. He further insists upon the extraordinary event with its turning point from which the hero’s life takes a different course. A Careful perusal of Heyse’s many Novellen reveals the perfect consistency with which he has followed these tenets. The Main event with it turning point is in every one apparent, and often most originally worked out. Admirable is the self-restraint and tact with which an exuberant imagination is controlled. Never do descriptions of the beauty of nature or of human beings blur the “silhouette” of the story. The two tales before us are good illustrations of this artistry. Rothenberg with its charmed seclusion and the fierce towers of gleaming Siena are not enlarged upon for their own sale, but serve merely as appropriate Motivation-in the one case for the young wife’s naïve instinctive ness, in the other for the passions, violent but not base, of Renaissance Italians. In other Novellen he displays the same discreetness, as for instance, when he describes the Mountains of Meran in Incurable, or the azure Bay of Naples in L’Arrabiata, or the lawless grandeur of the Appenine in Fenice, or the sensuous melancholy of the Roman Campagna in Villa Falconieri, or the sunny beauty of Province in his Troubadour stories. PAUL HEYSE (Pages 1-152) “The Life of Paul Heyse.” “Blind.” “L’Arrabiata.” “Nino and Maso.” “The Spell of Rothenburg.” Ekkehard appeared in 1857 and marks the zenith of Scheffel’s creative powers. The great and concentrated labors he had expended upon this novel had so exhausted his strength that never again could he produce a work of equal artistic value. He now definitely abandoned all thought of continuing his legal career, and went with his friend, the painter Anselm Feuerbach to Venice in the hope of regaining his strength and obtaining inspiration for a new historical novel the theme of which was suggested to him by Feuerbach’s painting “ The Death of Arretino.” Scheffel’s literary activity represents the soundest aspects of later German romanticism. His profound and sympathetic knowledge of the middle ages, his genuine devotion to nature and his fine appreciation of the influence she exerts upon the spiritual life of man, his exhausted conception of the mission of the true artist, the naturalness and freedom of his poetical expression, his impatience with all that is conventional and commonplace in life – all these elements which we find in his life and writings are characteristics of German romanticism. On the other hand, his humor and sound realistic sense enabled him to avoid the morbid phases of the movement, its excessive sentimentality its overwrought religious broodings, its reactionary political tendencies, its fantastic extravagance, and its poetic formlessness. JOSEPH VICTOR VON SCHEFFEL (Pages 153-332) “The Life of Joseph Victor Von Scheffel.” “Ekkehard.” “In the Rhaetian Alps.” “Magaretha.” “Parting.” “Old Heidelberg.” Marie Freifrau Von Ebner- Eschenbach, one of the foremost novelist in the German tongue, and one of the best short story writers in the world, was born at Zdislavic in Moravia on September 13, 1830. Her father, Count Franz von Dubsky, sprang from an ancient Bohemian family that had been settled in Moravia for about two centuries. Her mother, Countess Marie Vockel, a woman of very superior character, was of Saxon Protestant decent. German and Skavic blood is thus mingled in the novelist’s veins in about equal proportions and her lineage is probably due the fact that, in an epoch of race propaganda and race wars, she has risen above the din of contention and conflict to a cosmopolitan view of the world. MARIE VON EBNER-ESCHENBACH (Pages 333-448) “The Life of Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach.” “The District Doctor.” “Krambambuli.” “Aphorisms.” Heinrich Seidel has been justly called “The Poet of Happiness,” and it would be difficult indeed to find another more deserving of the title. While other modern poets are inclined to give expression to deep philosophical thought, and not infrequently seem to find satisfaction in presenting the dark and melancholy phases of human experience, Seidel on the contrary revels in depicting the quiet everyday life of normal middle-class. His characters are no psychotically problems, but simple, unpretentious people who pass through life without “storm and stress,” without tragic conflicts or heart-breaking sorrow. Seidel kept entirely aloof from the great social questions of the day; it was not for him to war against the best setting sins of mankind, but rather to give pleasure to himself and others. HEINRICH SEIDEL (Pages 449-490) ”The Life of Heinrich Seidel.” “Leberecht Huhnchen.” Keywords: The German Classics Vol. 13, Paul Heyse, Novelle, Germany, Rothenberg, Meran, Villa Falconieri, L’Arrabiata, Nino and Maso, Arretino, Magaretha, Countess Marie Vockel, Ebner- Eschenbach, Poet,

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