New-York tribune., 1905-11-30
Uts Last ToEp4ne by Brandes on
N;nstecatk Century Literature.

-. ~ the SIX volumes in which the ex-
+ .-enslation OK George Brandes's Main
oe' in Nineteenth Century Literature
Cu'' ,rocrnfIlan Company has been getting
t'He ,.br,sbed carries the author into company
-.t,ob he is especially sympathetic He
a.. ~ B6rna, Heine and the others who did
81 they could to counteract the deadening
.-S-.nc. x the political conditions of their
he writes OF Young Germany" which is
NJ TIE gifted men who had the revolu-
',...-v instinct in their blood and exploited It
"a son?et!ues touching devotion. One man
!. -,,ius there was IN that jealous band Helm
- Hsins; the rest had talents which outside
~ 1.-ranv are not very vividIy remembered
sov Mr. Brandes is careful to put his diff
- ernres IN the right perspective. and does
- ,1-s-esttrate the value of any one Of them.
-, ~ shows, too, how important the literary
80 -, he describes was to the country which
-. = birth, pointing out that if it bequeathed
= -o.tertty little that was tangibly great" IT
..-,sd a good purpose IN letting in lot of fresh
= .-be-a tnat heaIthful commodity was sorely
-..sa6 t1t IS strong through its doubt" he
.,s ats hatred Of thraldom. its individualsm." !"
1hrs he repeats with approval SteinthaTs criti-
ism Of Borne, that he never thought sys-
..,,e+ycaIly never combined with each other all
-. many things that one after the other occu-
,od end affected his mind" but he gives full
height TO the share which writings like the
listers from Paris" had IN the development Of
liberal ideas in Germany.
The onIy criticism we have TO pass upon Mr..
prsndes where his treatment % Borne is con-
,.rned. is the one which he aims at that writer.
az we have just shown He sketches rather
than fully portrays the man, and the same lack
NJ constructive art is noticed in his other chap
,.rs Yet in his discursive way he frequently
gives the reader Invaluable glimpses into the
general movement OF the epoch studied, as in
this passage: .-...-. u..z
TIE cultivated classes sought . kind Of compen-
satloa foE their exclusion from politics e a iran
s.,s ss6 IN bss ssrie - ia Z sc5 IA an extreme n the
PerI!a of the Tweuties every other interest was
swallowed up in the question Of ths superiority or
DC b5t tse rivalry between spontinf ard Weber
when Bone came 10 Berlin ln 1873 the public
Eenriette Son-aE. that no one remembered any
thing about Borne, except ttas ne had written an
Hearings salst1 he gives witty and Yet yiracious
account Of how ne was met ana saluted everywhere
vgitb the crys This is the man who Wrote about
sontag@t Even IN 1892. everythingthe agitation in
France, the Pollsh defeat. sHmpaihy VITA ne e%-
ned Poes-eTeTyth!ng was forgotten N The en-
thusiasn for the feet Of the great danseuse
triurnphsl progress through Europe. The chief
representative Of the reactonay spirit IN Prussia
Thedor Heinrich Won Rochow. writes in May, 1892,
20 Won NagIer, the Postmaster General: She Is 70
dance. consequently there IS great rejoicing, and
ocecsfs rs - 5is1eiie The +freaterin signs Of the
tlraos'= The WORD occupation here is significant.
The performance did not merely please 1t occupied
In some respects intellectual Germany would
seem 10 have changed very little since those
strange days. Mr.. Brandes says Of Heine that
among his countrymen che is looked on and
judged as the singing nettle in the garden Of
literature He stings the historians fingers, and
they curse him. IN histories Of literature and
magazine articles his prose- is described as old
fashioned, and his poetry as artificial" Yet
M Brandes adds that his works, now that
the copyright has expired, are republished in in
Vulnerable editions" which is one way of say
ing that though the leaders Of young Ger
many" may be oontemned in some quarters to
this day. the seed they sowed goes on yielding
fruit. e--.~"