

LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1878. 



487 



Nachtwachter's," Franz Dingelstedt have 

 both during the course of the year issued a 

 collection of their works. In Austria Scho- 

 penhauer's pessimism has affected Alfred Ber- 

 ger's otherwise terse and powerful verses. 

 Stefan Milow, in his new poems, " In der Son- 

 nenwende," displays a manly and calm resig- 

 nation. Friedrich Marx's volume of poems, 

 entitled "Gemiith und Welt," is distinguished 

 by elevation of language and vivid descriptions 

 of the Austrian Alps. A fourth Austrian, the 

 well-known dramatist and pseudo-Turk, Mu- 

 rad Effendi, retains his Oriental mask in his 

 poems entitled " Ost und West." 



Wilbrandt appeared this year with a trage- 

 dy, " Krimhild," a piece called " Natalie," and 

 two comedies, " Auf den Brettern" and "Der 

 Thurm in der Stadtmauer." The subject of 

 Nissel's newest drama, "Agnes von Meran," 

 is the separation of Philip Augustus of France 

 from his first wife, Ingeborg, and his mar- 

 riage with the fair Meran. Anzengruber's latest 

 piece, "Die Trutzige," transplants Shake- 

 speare's " Taming of the Shrew " among the 

 Austrian Alps. Among the novels is Auer- 

 bach's "Landolin von Reutershofen," a psy- 

 chological story of crime. The " Homo Sum " 

 of Ebers describes the struggle between ascet- 

 ic monkhood and art-loving paganism. Al- 

 fred Meissner's " Feindliche Pole " is a politi- 

 co-social novel. " Der neue Hiob," by Sacher- 

 Masoch, gives a picture of the oppression en- 

 dured by the. Ruthenian peasantry under the 

 sway of the Polish landed proprietors. 



Novels of domestic life are Otto Roqnette's 

 pleasing story, "Im Hause der Vater," and 

 G. zu Putlitz's " Croquet." Among novelettes 

 the most important are Gottfried Keller's " Zil- 

 richer Novellen," Ferd. Kurnberger's "Novel- 

 len," Thedor Storm's new "Novellen," and 

 Paul Lindau's " Vier Novellen." 



Two interesting biographies by Johann Hein- 

 rich Loewe relate to the religious and roman- 

 ticist movement of the beginning of this cen- 

 tury ; they recount the lives of Sister Augus- 

 tine or Amalie de Lassaulx, and of that remark- 

 able and noble man Emanuel Veith. Suphan 

 has published a critical edition of J. G. von 

 Herder. 



To the correspondence between Rahel and 

 Varnhagen has been added another volume by 

 Ludmilla Assing, entitled " Aus Rahel's Her- 

 zensleben." The " Letters of .Freiherr von 

 Wessenberg to Isfordink-Kostnitz," and the 

 "Memoirs of Prince Metternich," announced 

 for publication, are important contributions to 

 recent history. The latter is said to be written 

 by Prince Richard Metternich, the son of the 

 minister. Moritz Busch's recent publication, 

 " Bismarck und seine Leute," is a curious and 

 naive account of the Chancellor's life during 

 the war, in which the minutest details of his 

 private life and conversation are recited with 

 innocent and admiring fidelity. 



Baron Helfert, the Austrian historian, has 

 published a life of Queen Caroline of Naples, 



and one of Joachim Murat, both drawn from 

 new sources. A treatise by Poesche deserving 

 of notice is his "Arier"; he supposes the 

 Aryans to have come from the marshes of Les- 

 ser Russia, between the Baltic and the Black 

 Sea, and not, as hitherto assumed, from Upper 

 Asia. Von Hellwald and Beck's work, " Ueber 

 die heutige Tiirkei," gives a clear picture of 

 the country and the inhabitants of the Balkan 

 Peninsula. K. E. Franzos has in " Vom Don 

 zur Donau " made Roumania and the new king- 

 dom of Bulgaria, as well as Lesser Russia, the 

 chief scenes of his new pictures. 



Since the publication of Goethe's correspon- 

 dence on scientific subjects by Professor Bra- 

 tranek, the attention of the poet's commenta- 

 tors has again been turned toward his scientific 

 work. Waldemar Freiherr von Biedermann's 

 treatise, entitled " Goethe und das Erzgebirge," 

 gives an account of Goethe's knowledge of 

 geology and mining affairs in Saxony and Thu- 

 ringia. Another treatise by S. Kalischer, 

 " Goethe's Verhaltniss zu den Naturwissen- 

 schaften," discusses Goethe's connection with 

 Mr. Darwin's theory, and, in a readable man- 

 ner, his works on botany, astrology, zoology, 

 mineralogy, and geology. As a geologist, Goethe 

 was a Neptunist, but by his opinion of the slow 

 transformation of the earth's surface was a 

 precursor of Lyell, and by his supposition of 

 a former glacial period a precursor of Agassiz. 

 Gwinher has issued an enlarged edition of 

 his life of Schopenhauer. Otto Busch in his 

 " Beitrag zu einer Dogmatik der Religions- 

 losen," discusses Schopenhauer's theories, as 

 also does Paul Deussen in " Die Elemente der 

 Metaphysik." Hartmann's " Philosophie des 

 Unbewussten " has been followed by an attempt 

 in moral philosophy, under the title of " Pha'no- 

 menologie des ethischen Bewusstseins." Ju- 

 lius Bahnsen appeared with an ingenious but 

 pessimistic treatise on " Die tragische Weltord- 

 nung als Weltgesetz und das Wesen des Hu- 

 mors." Ludwig Noir6's philosophical cate- 

 chism ("Aphorismen zur monistichen Philoso- 

 phie ") recapitulates the main doctrines of Kant, 

 Schopenhauer, Darwin, R. Mayer, Haeckel, and 

 the late L. Geiger. Zollner, known as an as- 

 tronomer, affirms the possibility of the phe- 

 nomena of modern spiritualism on the suppo- 

 sition of space with four dimensions. He is 

 confronted by J. H. Fichte, tlie representative 

 of idealism, in his protest entitled " Der neue 

 Spiritual ismus, sein Werth und seine Tiiu- 

 schungen." 



HOLLAND. Of works on the history of 

 Holland, the most important are De Jonge's 

 collection of documents relating to the history 

 of the Dutch power in the East, and Van Vlo- 

 ten's "History of the Netherlands." The 

 diplomatic correspondence of Anton Reinhard 

 Falck contains valuable materials for the his- 

 tory of Europe at the period of the French 

 Restoration. Scheurleer's essay on the char- 

 acters of the painter Wiertz and the composer 

 Berlioz (" Twee Titanen der 19 e Eeuw") is an 



