Schiller’s Literary Prose Works

New translations of Schiller's literary prose works, accompanied by fresh critical essays.

Friedrich Schiller was a dramatist and poet for the ages, an important aesthetic theorist, and among Germany's first historians. But he left few works of literary prose behind -- seven short tales and fragments, almost all from early in his career -- and although they include some of his most resonant in his own time, they are largely overlooked today. Several of the pieces -- which includeThe Ghost-Seer, A Magnanimous Act from Most Recent History, TheCriminal of Lost Honor: A True Story, A Curious Example of Female Vengeance, Duke Alba at Breakfast at Castle Rudolstadt, Play of Fate: A Fragment of a True Story, andHaoh-Kiöh-Tschuen -- have never before appeared inEnglish translation. But they are a seminal link in the evolution of the then-nascent German novella. They exhibit the anthropological curiosity and moral confusion that made Schiller's first dramaThe Robbers, a sensation, demonstrating an original artistry that justifies consideration of scholars and students today, on the eve of the 250th anniversary of his birth. New translations of the seven works appear here together with introductory critical essays.

Contributors: Jeffrey L. High, Nicholas Martin, Otto W. Johnston, Gail K. Hart, Dennis F. Mahoney; Translators: Francis Lamport, Ian Codding, Jeffrey L. High, Ellis Dye, Edward T. Larkin, Carrie Ann Collenberg

Jeffrey L. High is Associate Professor at California State University Long Beach.

Foreword - Lesley Sharpe
Preface - Jeffrey L. High
Introduction: Schiller and the German Novella - Jeffrey L. High
A Magnanimous Act from Most Recent History (Friedrich Schiller, 1782)) - Ian Codding
A Remarkable Example of Female Revenge (Taken from a Manuscript by the Late Denis Diderot) (Friedrich Schiller, 1785) - Ellis Dye - DECEASED IN 2017
The Criminal of Lost Honor. A True Story (Friedrich Schiller, 1786) - Jeffrey L. High
Duke Alba's Breakfast at Rudolstadt Castle in the Year 1547 (Friedrich Schiller, 1788) - Ian Codding
Game of Fate. A Fragment of a True Story (Friedrich Schiller, 1789) - Edward T. Larkin
The Spiritualist. From the Memoirs of Count von O** (Friedrich Schiller, 1789) - F. J. Lamport
The Philosophical Dialog fromThe Spiritualist (Friedrich Schiller, 1789) - Helen Kilgallen
Haoh-Kiöh-Tschuen (The Tale of a Perfect Match) (Friedrich Schiller, 1800-1801) - Carrie Collenberg
(A fragment of) A True Story (from most recent history): TheTruth in Schiller's Literary Prose Works - Jeffrey L. High
Playing with the Rules: Schiller's Experiments in Short Prose Fiction, 1782-1789 - Nicholas Martin
Diderot and Schiller's "Revenge": From Parisian Parody to German Moral Fiction - Otto W. Johnston
True Crime and Criminal Truth: Schiller's "The Criminal of Lost Honor" - Gail K. Hart
Der Geisterseher: A Princely Experiment or, the Creation of a "Spiritualist" - Dennis Mahoney
Chronological List of Schiller's Literary Prose Works in English Translation - Tanya Doss