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A Divided Heart and Other Stories By: Paul Heyse (1830-1914) |
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[Illustration: Paul Heyse]
A DIVIDED HEART AND OTHER STORIES
FROM
PAUL HEYSE
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
With an Introduction
BY
CONSTANCE STEWART COPELAND
New York:
BRENTANO'S
CHICAGO PARIS WASHINGTON
Copyright. 1894,
BY
BRENTANO'S.
BURR PRINTING HOUSE,
NEW YORK.
To
My Mother C. S. C.
CONTENTS.
Introduction Paul Heyse A Divided Heart Minka Rothenburg on the Tauber
INTRODUCTION PAUL HEYSE
PAUL HEYSE. INTRODUCTION.
It occasionally happens that a reader expecting to find the customary
account of an author's early struggles for bread and knowledge, his
bitter disappointments, his late and almost joyless success, is
surprised by the record of a singularly fortunate life; of a life which
advances easily and naturally from a peaceful and promising childhood
to an equally peaceful, famous old age. Goethe's was such a life; and
reading it, one feels that sharp encounter with the hardest facts of
existence would have lessened his greatness, would have disturbed that
perfect serenity of soul which made him philosopher as well as poet,
and fostered his fidelity to high ideals of life and art. A countryman of Goethe's, Paul Heyse, born in Berlin in 1830, two years
before the great poet's death, was no less fortunate in the lot to
which fate assigned him. Heyse's power was unlike Goethe's in kind and
degree, but the opportunities for its development were equally
favorable. His father was a philologist and lexicographer, whose home
was comfortable and refined, and whose friends were cultured and
literary. He took charge of his son's early education, and naturally
laid great stress on language, inculcating the love for purity and
exactness in its use, which is one of Heyse's best qualities.
Stimulated by the atmosphere of his home, and by these studies in
literary technique , Heyse began to try his skill in original work at
a very early age, and was only seventeen years old when his first book,
"Jungbrunnen: New Tales by a Travelling Scholar," appeared. Although
this production encouraged his friends in the belief that a great
future lay before him, it made no impression whatever on the world at
large, and the young author pursued his studies at the Berlin
University without astounding anyone by phenomenal brilliancy or
success. Finishing at Berlin, he betook himself to Bonn, and spent a year
studying Romance and philology with the famous Diez. So great was the
interest in mediaeval languages which Diez succeeded in awakening in
the young man, that in 1850 Heyse travelled to Italy and employed a
year in examining the precious manuscripts of the old Italian
libraries. The results of these researches were afterwards published
under the title "Romanische Jnedita auf italienischen Bibliotheken
gesammelt;" and a book of Italian songs was also presented to the
world. Upon his return to Germany, Heyse at once began serious literary work,
and put the first rung in the traditional ladder to fame. Although his
present place in literature is due to his work as a novelist, his first
creations were dramas in verse. He aspired to become a poet; not a
singer of songs and lyrics, but a great dramatic poet, whose lines
should chant, and whose thoughts should create a new era... Continue reading book >>
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