Minna von Barnhelm, oder das Soldatengluck (Grossdruck)
by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Die Beiden Nachtwandler Oder Das Notwendige Und Das Überflüssige
by Johann Nestroy
An exploration of the poetic function of Greek archetypes in Schiller's Wallenstein, this study claims Homer's Iliad and Euripides's Iphigenia in Aulis, the first epic and the last tragic poem about the Trojan War in the Greek tradition, as archetypal sources for Schiller's modern historical drama about the Thirty Years War. In close comparison with Voss's translation of the Iliad and Schiller's own translation of Iphigenia in Aulis, Berns shows how Wallenstein compounds echoes of Homeric and Eu...
In The Visit (original title Der Besuch der alten Dame), Claire Zachanassian, now a multimillion heiress and an older woman, returns to the impoverished town of her youth with a dreadful bargain: in exchange for returning the town to prosperity through her vast wealth, she wants the townspeople to kill the man who jilted her. From its subtle exploration of parochial politics to its horrific climax, The Visit shows a population willing to sacrifice loyalty and scruples in the pursuit of riches. I...
Goethe's Female Characters from the Original Drawings of William Kaulbach
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Salome (Dover Fine Art, History of Art) (A Brilliance Books project)
by Oscar Wilde
Salome: A Tragedy in One Act (1891) is a play by Wilde. It presents the Biblical tale of the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas whose dancing caused the death of John the Baptist (Mark 6:21-29). The play explores Salome's two-fold desire to retain her virginity and to destroy male sexuality. Richard Strauss's opera was based on Wildes version of the Salome story.
Lenz, Georg Büchner’s visionary exploration of an 18th-century playwright’s descent into madness, has been called the inception of European modernist prose. Elias Canetti considered this short novella one of the decisive reading experiences of his life, and writers as various as Paul Celan, Christa Wolff, Peter Schneider, and Gert Hofmann have paid homage to it in their works. Published posthumously in 1839, Lenz provides a taut case study of three weeks in the life of schizophrenic, perhaps the...
German playwright Frank Wedekind has profoundly influenced modern drama, and became an inspiration to Brecht and Reinhardt among others. In this extraordinary play, Franziska, a 'female Faust', is consumed by a deep thirst for self-knowledge. She makes a pact a Mephistophelean impresario who grants her two years of pleasure and brilliant success in her operatic career as long as she becomes his wife and vassal. But, in an unusual twist, Franziska is not destined for eternal damnation. This is...
Tugent Spyl (Ausgaben Deutscher Literatur Des 15. Bis 18. Jahrhunderts /, #81)
by Sebastian Hans-Gert Brant Roloff and Sebastian Brant
First published in 1990, Don Juan: Variations on a Theme explores the differing perceptions of this famous character following his first appearance on the European stage in the early seventeenth century. The book concentrates on the ways in which perceptions of Don Juan’s character have altered in response to changes in social and moral values. It examines famous Don Juan works, including those by Moliere, Byron, Pushkin, Shaw, Anouilh, and Max Frisch, and relates them to these changing views....
