Essays

by Friedrich Schiller, Walter Hinderer, Daniel O. Dahlstrom (Editor)

With Friedrich Schiller's (1759—1805) essential aesthetic writings, The German Library now includes the third and final volume of works by the influential playwright, historian, and philosopher. The informative introduction by Walter Hinderer and Daniel O. Dahlstrom sketches the various dimensions (historical, anthropological, philosophical, social, and personal) of Schiller's complex aesthetic views, and analyzes the impact of his attempts to develop concepts at odds with the social fragmentation of his time. Through all of his theoretical and dramatic work, Schiller remains our contemporary: The questions that he posed still concern us today.

Genres: Philosophy, Essays, Romanticism, Nonfiction, German Literature

296 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

People best know long didactic poems and historical plays, such as Don Carlos (1787) and William Tell (1804), of leading romanticist German poet, dramatist, and historian Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller.

This philosopher and dramatist struck up a productive if complicated friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe during the last eighteen years of his life and encouraged Goethe to finish works that he left merely as sketches; they greatly discussed issues concerning aesthetics and thus gave way to a period, now referred to as classicism of Weimar. They also worked together on Die Xenien ( The Xenies ), a collection of short but harsh satires that verbally attacked perceived enemies of their aesthetic agenda.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedri...

Reviews

[Stephanie Ricker]

Right now I’m reading a book of essays by Friedrich Schiller, one of which (“On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry”) I read for one of my philosophy classes in school. I was intrigued and always meant to go back and read the other essays, so I’m finally getting around to it. Reading this while reading The Hunger Games is, I think, the definition of literary whiplash. Excruciatingly different reading. Schiller is so heavy, I can really only read 10 or 20 pages at a time before my mind just wanders away completely, but I really like him, and his ideas are fascinating. I feel very erudite as I trudge along, trying to hang onto his coattails before he loses me entirely.

[Salomé]

His definition of the sublime is definitely worth a shot.