Kleist, Heinrich Von

HEINRICH VON KLEIST (1777-1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist.  Poets of the Realist, Expressionist, Nationalist, and Existentialist movements in France and Germany saw their prototype in Kleist, a poet whose demonic genius had foreseen modern problems of life and literature.



Dissatisfied with the career of an army officer, which had been chosen for him, he resigned his commission and for a time studied law and mathematics, but his reading of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant destroyed his faith in the value of knowledge.  Despairing of reason, he decided to place his trust in emotion.  The unresolved conflict between them lies at the heart of his work.



His adaptation of Molière's "Amphitryon" (1807) attracted some attention, and in 1808 he published "Penthesilia", a tragic drama about the passionate love of the queen of the Amazons for Achilles.  Although this play received little acclaim, it is now thought to contain some of Kleist's most powerful poetry, with the grimness of plot and intensity of feeling that have made his place unique among German poets.  In March 1808 Kleist's one-act comedy in verse, "The Broken Pitcher" was unsuccessfully produced by Goethe in Weimar.  The play employs vividly portrayed rustic characters, skillful dialogue, earthy humour, and subtle realism in its depiction of the fallibility of human feeling and the flaws inherent in human justice.  It ranks among the masterpieces of German dramatic comedy.



Kleist wrote eight masterly novellas, of which "The Earthquake in Chile", "Michael Kohlhaas," and "The Marquise von O—" have become well-known as tales of violence and mystery.  They are all characterized by an extraordinary economy, power, and vividness and by a tragic subject matter in which men are driven to the limits of their endurance by the violence of other men or of nature.  His last drama, "Prince Friedrich of Homburg" (published posthumously in 1821), is a brilliant psychological drama whose problematical hero is Kleist's finest figure, reflecting Kleist's own conflicts between heroism and cowardice, dreaming and action.



Kleist is also famous for his essays on subjects of aesthetics and psychology which show a keen insight into the metaphysical questions discussed by philosophers of his time, such as Kant, Fichte and Schelling.



Disappointed in life and embittered by the lack of recognition accorded him by his contemporaries, particularly Goethe, he came to know an incurably sick woman, Henriette Vogel, who begged him to kill her.  This gave Kleist the final incentive to end his life, and on November 21, 1811, he shot Henriette and himself on the shore of the Wannsee.





The following books are in ePUB and/or PDF format as noted:



== PROSE ==



* Duel, The (Melville House, 2011).  Annie Janusch, trans. -- ePUB

* German Romantic Criticism (Continuum, 1982).  Leslie Willson, ed. -- PDF^

* Marquise of O— (Pushkin Press, 2019).  Nicholas Jacobs, trans. -- ePUB

* Marquise of O— & Other Stories (Ungar, 1973).  Martin Greenberg, trans. -- PDF

* Marquise of O— & Other Stories (Penguin, 2004). Luke & Reeves, trans. -- ePUB + PDF^

* Michael Kohlhaas (Melville House, 2004).  Martin Greenberg, trans. -- ePUB

* Michael Kohlhaas (New Directions, 2020).  Michael Hofmann, trans. -- ePUB

* Selected Prose (Archipelago, 2010).  Peter Wortsman, trans. -- ePUB + PDF



== PLAYS ==



* Amphitryon: A Comedy (Ungar, 1962).  Marion Sonnenfeld, trans. -- PDF

* Amphitryon: Three Plays (North Carolina, 1974).  Charles Passage, trans. -- PDF

* Five Plays (Yale, 1988).  Martin Greenberg, trans. -- PDF^

* Penthesilea (HarperCollins, 1998).  Joel Agee, trans.; Maurice Sendak, illus. -- PDF

* Plays (Continuum, 1995).  Walter Hinderer, ed. -- PDF

* Prince Friedrich of Homburg (New Directions, 1978). D. Stone & F. Peters, trans. -- ePUB

* Prince of Homburg (Bobbs-Merrill, 1956).  Charles Passage, trans. -- PDF

* Prince of Homburg (Ivan Dee, 1990).  Bernard Sahlins, trans. -- PDF



== LETTERS ==



* An Abyss Deep Enough: Letters (Dutton, 1982).  Philip B. Miller, ed. -- PDF^





PDF^ by Mohamed5438



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