Selected Writings
When he died in 1811 at the age of 34, Kleist left behind a corpus of works that, while small in quantity, were and still are among the finest German texts. This volume includes the majority of Kleist's writings in English translation. An outstanding representation of his work, this selection offers three plays, eight short stories, five anecdotes, and three essays. Kleist's dramas and stories resonate with complex circumstances and obscure consequences that the characters struggle to sail through. Things are not always what they seem to be; intriguingly, the guilty can look innocent and the innocent guilty. The play The Broken Jug, as well as the stories "Michael Kohlhaas" and "The Chilean Earthquake," depict predicaments of the falsely accused who are denied justice. Constantine, a fellow at Queen's College, Oxford, does an outstanding job of conveying the beauty of Kleist's literary style while allowing himself some liberties in translation. Highly recommended for literary and large collections.-Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NYCopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.