The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-22
SOME e o
German Literature in the First Half Of the
Nineteenth Century.

NIneteenth entury
Mary Morrison has translated, and the
Macmillans have published, the sixth and
concluding volume Of the remarkable
contribution TO the critical study Of great
modern writer's entitled Main Currsnts IN
Nineteenth Century Literature by tho well
known Danish author, GEORGE BRANDEs.
Goethe does not figure ~dominantly In
this vol ume, because, although he lived
until 1882, he belongs to the eighteenth
rather than the nineteenth century. We
rear, however, something about him in a
chapter devoted to a comparison OF Goethe
with Heine from the lyrical point Of view.
To. Heine himself almost a hundred pages
are devoted. The only other German man
i. Of lstters who acquired great distinction
during the half century ending with the
revolution Of l84S and who is here consid-
cred at proportionate length is Borne.
F; There 10, however, a chapter on INNER
mann, another On E~legelianism, and a third
| on three brilliant women, Rahel, Bettina
and Charlotte StieglitS.
Az a matter Of fact, the period TO which
! Mr. Brandes gives almost exclusive atten-
ton in this volume is even shorter than
Ne have indicated. 1t practically begins
Ii 1917. when a new intellectual movement
first found expression in Germany at the
Wartburg Festival. For some dozen years
thereafter the general intellectual oondl-
tion, corresponding to the eclipse Of politi-
cal Liberalism, was one of depression.
relieved by outbursts of self ridicule. The
state of s~tagnation was brought to an end
by the news Of the Revolution of July, 1880,
which electrified public feeling and gave
hoth pnafa and rrooo Uritara nav Coilra co
and fresh inspiration.
The remembrance Of Byron's life and
death influenced men in the same direction,
and the Polish revolt awakened sympathy
and enthusiasm among Germans, in spite
Of the part that Germany had taken in the
annihilation Of Poland az a nation. Ludwig
Borne, now. perhaps. the most forgotten OF
German writer's, was, like Heine, a Jew.
Born in 1855 in the Jewish quarter OF
Frankfort-on-Main, it was not until a few
years before his death. which occurred
In 1887. that he made a great name for
himself by his Letters from Paris In
these letters he stood forward as the most
eminent advocate Of Liberalism in politics,
held high the banner Il liberty and justice,
presented a noble example in respect Of
strength Of character and conviction,
but at the same time disclosed a naive
and fanatioal optimism which proved him
not to possess the temperament required
In q statesman. 1t is, however, in Heine,
the greatest poet Of the period from 1915
10 1913, that We feel the vibration Of the
epoGh's every nerve. In him modern
SpoetTy cast OF the swaddling clothes Of
7RomantiCism. In love, in an appreciation
Of nature, in his political, social and relig-
ious views, in his descriptive, poetic and
satitic styles he is the representative mar
Of his own day and Of ours, litter than any
other to grapple with modern life in lite
hardness and ugliness, its charm and its
restlessness, it's wealth Of violent contrasts.
It is on the hundred pages assigned to an
exposition Of Heine's literary work that
we shall here mainly dwell.