An Abyss Deep Enough : The Letters of Heinrich Von Kleist with a Selection of Essays and Anecdotes

by Heinrich von Kleist, Philip B. Miller (Editor / Translator )

Book by

297 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

The dramatist, writer, lyricist, and publicist Heinrich von Kleist was born in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1777. Upon his father's early death in 1788 when he was ten, he was sent to the house of the preacher S. Cartel and attended the French Gymnasium. In 1792, Kleist entered the guard regiment in Potsdam and took part in the Rhein campaign against France in 1796. Kleist voluntarily resigned from army service in 1799 and until 1800 studied philosophy, physics, mathematics, and political science at Viadrina University in Frankfurt an der Oder. He went to Berlin early in the year 1800 and penned his drama "Die Familie Ghonorez". Kleist, who tended to irrationalism and was often tormented by a longing for death, then lit out restlessly through Germany, France, and Switzerland.

After several physical and nervous breakdowns, in which he even burned the manuscript of one of his dramas, Heinrich von Kleist reentered the Prussian army in 1804, working in Berlin and Königsberg. There he wrote "Amphitryon" and "Penthesilea."

After being discharged in 1807, Kleist was apprehended on suspicion of being a spy. After this he went to Dresden, where he edited the art journal "Phoebus" with Adam Müller and completed the comedy "The Broken Pitcher" ("Der zerbrochene Krug") and the folk play "Katchen von Heilbronn" ("Das Käthchen von Heilbronn").

Back in Berlin, the one time Rousseau devotee had become a bitter opponent of Napoleon. In 1811, he finished "Prinz Friedrich von Homburg." Finding himself again in financial and personal difficulties, Heinrich von Kleist, together with his lover, the terminally ill Henriette Vogel, committed suicide near the Wannsee in Berlin in 1811.

[From http://www.heinrich-von-kleist.com/]

Reviews

[Epictetus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kleist was a central referent in John Gray, _The soul of the Marionette_, and is anyway a key figure in German if not European literature. I wanted to read him.
Kleist was a novelist and this book is probably no substitute for reading one of Kleist’s novels, but does contain some high quality writing. The book is in several parts, chief of which are: love letters to Wilhelmine, letters before his suicide, essays & journalism, and anecdotes. I like his essays best.

Love affair with Wilhelmine

From "To Ulrike von Kleist, 5 February 180"

"… I am not suited to human company, it is a sad truth but a truth nevertheless; and if I must give you the reason bluntly, it is because people do not please me. I know very well that with people it is as with mirrors, that both sides must determine the image that actually appears; and many would stop decrying the decline in morals if the thought occurred to them that perhaps it is really the mirror in which the world that they see is reflected that is so dirty and distorted. Thus it may be that, if I am ill at ease in society, it is less because of others than because I myself do not appear as I would like to be."

This passage is a good example of Kleist’s subtlety of thought.


From "Essays & journalism"

"The very last word in modern educational theory"

K. explains one of the laws of physics, that by which opposite electrical charges attract and like charges repel each other. He observes that this principle applies “in the moral as well as the physical realm …. A man in a condition of total indifference … as to some issue or other, does not only instantly cease to be so upon contact with someone firmly opinioned in the matter, but his entire being (if we may so express it) modulates into polar oppositions: he assumes the term + when the other is –, and – when the other is +.”
K then gives some examples of this principle in action in the human sphere, both engaging, well written and witty. He then uses the principle to explain what he says is a mystery of human nature.

"Whoever comprehends this law correctly will never again regard as a mystery one phenomenon that has kept philosophers very busy, namely that great men as a rule descend from obscure and inconsequential parentage, and in turn raise children who are in every respect inferior and mediocre. ….

"How carefully must we qualify the old saw about bad company corrupting good morals. …. Collect all the knaves of the world together and ship them off somewhere … and … [one would soon find] among them … shining examples of the loftiest, most virtuous behaviour."

K points out that moral instruction has tended always to be based on mimetic principles, that this kind of moral instruction does not work, and that what success that has derived from teaching morals on the mimetic basis has been because of mistakes. Then K. makes his main point (Schwerpunkt, one might way):

"In consideration … of all these circumstances, we are of a mind to establish a sort of School of Vices, or, better said, a School of Contrariness, of Virtue through the Vices.
"In accordance, therefore, teachers will be hired for all pairs of mutually counteractive vices ….

"NOTE: Parents who are reluctant to entrust their children to us, for fear of their somehow being corrupted in such an institution, would thereby prove themselves susceptible to exaggerated notions about the power of education in the first place."

Analogy to laws of science seems to be a predilection of German writers. Goethe, _Elective Affinities_, uses the same device.

I want to read more Kleist.

[Liza Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rilke: “Whoever reads the early letters of Kleist will, to the extent that he grasps this figure which clarifies itself in thunderstorms, understand the importance of the passage which describes the arch of a certain gateway in Würzburg, one of the first impressions upon which, lightly touched, the already stretched genius burst outward.”
The passage::::

“On the evening before that most important day of my life, in Würzburg, I went for a walk. When the sun went down, it seemed as though my happiness were sinking with it. I was horrified to think that I might be forced to part with everything, everything of importance to me.
I was walking back to the city, lost in my own thoughts, through an arched gate. Why, I asked myself, does this arch not collapse, since after all it has no support? It remains standing, I answered, because all the stones tend to collapse at the same time—-and from this thought I derived an indescribably heartening consolation, which stayed by me right up to the decisive moment: I too would not collapse, even if all my support were removed!”

~~~~~~~

What a treasure to discover the inner world of an author who inspired some of the authors dearest to me. I encourage anyone who admires Rilke or Kafka to find this volume as well. The sensitivity in Kleist’s letters stands apart from his short novels. Kleist chases after ideas of ultimate meaning, questions of how best to live his life, and what should be his pursuit. As I struggle with similar (esp coming out of university), I find comfort in his expression of these questions and ideas.

Also, I’ve never disliked Goethe more than when reading the description of their interactions.

~~~~~~~

p. 92. “These people sit together like caterpillars on leaves, each believes his own leaf to be the best, and none concerns himself about the tree. Ah, my dear Ulrike, I am not suited to human company, it is a sad truth but a truth nevertheless; and if I must give you the reason bluntly, it is because people do not please me. I know very well that with people it is as with mirrors, that both sides must determine the image that actually appears; and many would stop decrying the decline of morals if the thought once occurred to them that perhaps it is really the mirror in which the world that they see is reflected that is so dirty and distorted.”

p. 117. “And yet the remembrance even of the bitterness is sweet. No, it is no misfortune to have lost a happiness; it is only a misfortune no longer to remember it. As long as we can still visit the ruins of the past, just so long does life retain its color.”

p. 125. “Yes, in truth, if we consider that we require a whole lifetime in order to leam how to live, that even at the point of death we have no notion of what Heaven intends for us, that no one knows the purpose of his existence and his destiny, that human reason is insufficient to comprehend itself, or the soul, or life, or any of the things of this world; that after thousands of years we still wonder whether there is such a thing as Justice: can God demand Responsibility from such a being? There is no use saying that a voice deep within confides secretly and clearly what is just.
The same voice that calls on the Christian to forgive his enemies calls on the savage to roast him, and he eats him up with piety. If an inner conviction justifies such deeds, can it be trusted? What does it mean, in terms of results, to do evil? What is evil? Absolute evil? Myriad, connected and intertwined are the things of this world, every act is the mother of millions of others, and often the worst begets the best. —Tell me, who in this world has ever done something evil? Something evil for Eternity—?”

[William Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredible. Like nothing else I have ever read. If you are like me, and have read Micheal Kohlhaas and thought it was a radical work of genius, and have then gone on to read the rest of the stories that are available in print, then this will be your last bulwark and salvation against the other side of Kleist's prose. I have read some great letter writers in the past, but Kleist is the first author whose collected letters I read straight through from start to finish. There is hardly a wasted word. They are all so strange and beautiful. And what's more, the essays and anecdotes in the back are a consistent and substantial joy. The three long essays plus the numerous anecdotes are like slices against the bulk of literature. The Peter Wortsman collection is the single best source of Kleist's writings in English, but let this book be its companion. There is a smidge of redundancy between them, but hardly. I was lucky to get my copy of this book for under 20 dollars, most of the others I see are 80, but if you can get you hands on a copy of this, please do. I will cherish mine and pour over it for many years to come.

[eliseazanotti · Rating 3 out of 5]

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