Transcriber's Note:
1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/3626115
I.--PROBLEMATIC CHARACTERS.
II.--THROUGH NIGHT TO LIGHT.
III.--THE HOHENSTEINS.
IV.--HAMMER AND ANVIL.
V.--IN RANK AND FILE.
VI.--ROSE, AND THE VILLAGE COQUETTE.
"Such a novel as no English author with whom we are acquainted couldhave written, and no American author except Hawthorne. What separatesit from the multitude of American and English novels is the perfectionof its plot, and its author's insight into the souls of hischaracters.... If Germany is poorer than England, as regards the numberof its novelists, it is richer when we consider the intellectual valueof their works. If it has not produced a Thackeray, or a Dickens, ithas produced, we venture to think, two writers who are equal to them ingenius, and superior to them in the depth and spirituality of theirart--Auerbach and Spielhagen."--Putnam's Magazine.
"The name is suggested by a passage nn Goethe, which serves as amotto to the book. Spielhagen means to illustrate what Goethe speaksof--natures not in full possession of themselves, 'who are not equal toany situation in life, and whom no situation satisfies'--the Hamlet ofour latest civilization. With these he deals in a poetic, idealfashion, yet also with humor, and, what is less to be expected in aGerman, with sparkling, flashing wit, and a cynical vein that remindsone of Heine. He has none of the tiresome detail of Auerbach, while helacks somewhat that excellent man's profound devotion to the moralsentiment. There is more depth of passion and of thought in Spielhagen,together with a French liveliness by no means common in Germannovelists.... At any rate, they are vastly superior to the bulk ofEnglish novels which are annually poured out upon us--as muchabove Trollope's as Steinberger Cabinet is better than Londonporter.--Springfield Republican.
"The reader lives among them (the characters) as he does among hisacquaintances, and may plead each one's case as plausibly to his ownjudgment as he can those of the men whose mixed motives and actions hesees around him. In other words, these characters live, they are menand women, and the whole mystery of humanity is upon each of them. Hasno superior in German romance for its enthusiastic and livelydescriptions, and for the dignity and the tenderness with which itsleading characters are invested."--New York Evening Post.
"He strikes with a blow like a blacksmith, making the sparks fly andthe anvil ring. Terse, pointed, brilliant, rapid, and no dreamer, hehas the best traits of the French manner, while in earnestness andfulness of matter he is thoroughly German. One sees, moreover, in hispages, how powerful is the impression which America has of late beenmaking upon the mind of Europe."--Boston Commonwealth.
"The work is one of immense vigor; the characters are extraordinary,yet not unnatural; the plot is the sequence of an a