"I find this an ideal introductory textbook for students of German literature. The material included provides an excellent overview of German literature since 1750 by embedding it in a cultural-historical context and clearly explaining the literary, cultural, and historical concepts involved. The copious exercises provide opportunities for students to organize their knowledge, engage in textual analysis, and expand their understanding of the interrelationships of literature and culture."
—Margaret K. Devinney, Director, German Program at Temple University
"Kirby reproduces in simple, clear English—and almost always line for line—the meaning of Goethe's German text, with metrical variations that evoke the shifting meters of the original."
—Jane Brown, University of Washington
“If ever a literary work was a sleep of reason, bruised by menacing shapes, it is Kleist’s. He was one of the first of a line of German writers whose inwardness is so intense it seems to dissolve the weak bonds of his society. . . . Even as order and paternalism struggled to assert themselves in the private and public life of the nineteenth century, Kleist was introducing scenes of mob violence, cannibalism, and less than benevolent fathers. . . . David Constantine, a distinguished poet and Germanist, and a translator of Hölderlin, has taken pains to give us a literary Kleist, ‘a writer we cannot do without.’ . . . This book, containing all the stories and three key plays, provides a compelling view of a misfit genius who, in one of his last notes, remarked ‘the world is a strange set-up.’”
—Iain Bamforth, The Times Literary Supplement
"Whobrey's masterful translation of this pair of thirteenth-century texts brings the entire Middle High German story to life for contemporary English-speaking audiences. His Introduction and notes guide the reader’s understanding of the texts and provide an overview of scholarly approaches to them. Scholars will be particularly grateful to Whobrey for providing manuscript variants from the three oldest manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied, allowing modern readers access to medieval interpretations of the story for the first time in English, and showcasing the dynamic nature of medieval storytelling." —Kathryn Starkey, Stanford University
"To say that the translations of both works read well is an understatement. . . . A very significant contribution to medieval literary studies in general and an essential addendum to Nibelungenlied studies in particular. . . . Deserves—and is likely destined—to become the standard translation into English of both the Nibelungenlied and the Klage for decades to come." —Winder McConnell, Emeritus, University of California, Davis
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