Heyse, Paul (15 March 1830 - 2 April 1914)
Paul Heyse (15 March 1830 - 2 April 1914)
Charles H. Helmetag
Villanova University
1910 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech
Heyse: Autobiographical Statement
This entry has been expanded by Helmetag from his Heyse entry in DLB 129: Nineteenth-Century German Writers, 1841–1900.
BOOKS: Frühlingsanfang 1848 (Berlin: Schade, 1848);
Der Jungbrunnen: Neue Märchen von einem fahrenden Schüler, anonymous (Berlin: Duncker, 1850)–comprises “Das Märchen von der guten Seele,” “Glückspilzchen,” “Das Märchen von Musje Morgenroth und jungfer Abendbrod,” “Veilchenprinz,” “Das Märchen von Blindekuh,” and “Fedelint und Funzifudelchen”; revised edition (Berlin: Paetel, 1878);
Francesca von Rimini: Tragödie in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1850);
Die Brüder: Eine chinesische Geschichte in Versen (Berlin: Hertz, 1852);
Studia romanensia: Particula I. Dissertatio inauguralis (Berlin: Schade, 1852);
Urica: Novelle in Versen (Berlin: Hertz, 1852);
Hermen: Dichtungen (Berlin: Hertz, 1854)–comprises “Margherita Spoletina,” “Urica,” “Idyllen von Sorrent,” “Die Furie,” “Die Brüder,” “Michelangelo Buonarotti,” and “Perseus: Eine Puppentragödie”;
Meleager: Eine Tragödie (Berlin: Hertz, 1854);
Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1855)–comprises “Die Blinden,” “Marion,” “L’Arrabbiata,” and “Am Tiberufer”;
Die Braut von Cypern: Novelle in Versen. Mit einem lyrischen Anhang (Stuttgart & Augsburg: Cotta, 1856);
Thekla: Ein Gedicht in neun Gesängen (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1858);
Neue Novellen: 2. Sammlung (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1858)–comprises “Erkenne dich selbst”; “Das Mädchen von Treppi,” translated by A. W. Hinton as The Maiden of Treppi; or, Love’s Victory (New York: Hinton, 1874); “Der Kreisrichter”; and “Helene Morten”;
Vier neue Novellen: 3. Sammlung (Berlin: Hertz, 1859)– comprises “Die Einsamen,” translated anonymously as “The Lonely Ones,” in Eugenie Masrtiti, Magdalena; Paul Heyse, The Lonely Ones (Philadelphia:
Lippincott, 1869); “Anfang und Ende”; “Maria Franziska”; and “Das Bild der Mutter”;
Die Sabinerinnen: Tragödie in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1859);
Die Grafen von der Esche: Schauspiel in fünf Akten (Munich: Deschler, 1861);
Neue Novellen: 4. Sammlung (Berlin: Hertz, 1862)–comprises “Annina”; “Im Grafenschloß”; “Andrea Delfin,” translated anonymously as Andrea Delfin (Boston: Burnham, 1864); and “Auf der Alm”;
Ludwig der Bayer: Schauspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1862);
Rafael: Eine Novelle in Versen (Stuttgart: Kröner, 1863);
Elisabeth Charlotte: Schauspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1864);
Gesammelte Novellen in Versen (Berlin: Hertz, 1864)–comprises “Die Braut von Cypern,” “Die Brüder,” “König und Magier,” “Margherita Spoletina,” “Urica,” “Die Furie,” “Rafael,” “Michelangelo Buonarotti,” and “Die Hochzeitsreise an den Walchensee”; enlarged edition (1870)–includes “Thekla,” “Syritha,” “Der Salamander,” “Schlechte Gesellschaft,” and “Das Feenkind”;
Meraner Novellen: 5. Sammlung (Berlin: Hertz, 1864)– comprises “Unheilbar,” translated by Mrs. H. W. Eve as Incurable (London: Nutt, 1890); “Der Kinder Sünde der Väter Fluch”; and “Der Weinhüter”;
Maria Moroni: Trauerspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1865);
Hadrian: Tragödie in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1865);
Hans Lange: Schauspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1866);
Fünf neue Novellen: 6. Sammlung (Berlin: Hertz, 1866)– comprises “Franz Alzeyer,” “Die Reise nach dem Glück,” “Die kleine Mama,” “Kleopatra,” and “Die Witwe von Pisa”;
Die glücklichen Bettler: Morgenländisches Märchen in drei Akten, frei nach Carlo Gozzi (Berlin: Hertz, 1867);
Novellen und Terzinen: 7. Sammlung der Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1867)–comprises “Syritha: Novelle in Versen,” “Mutter und Kind: Novelle,” “Auferstanden: Novelle,” “Der Salamander: Novelle in Versen,” and “Beatrice: Novelle”;
Colberg: Historisches Schauspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1868);
Der Rothmantel: Komische Oper in drei Aufzügen nach Musäus’ Volksmärchen (Munich: Wolf, 1868);
Moralische Novellen: 8. Sammlung (Berlin: Hertz, 1869)– comprises “Die beiden Schwestern,” “Lorenz und Lore,” “Vetter Gabriel,” “Am toten See,” and “Der Thurm von Nonza”;
Die Göttin der Vernurft: Trauerspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1870);
Adam und Eva: Operette in 1. Aufzuge, music by Robert von Hornstein (Munich: Sträub, 1870);
Ein neues Novellenbuch: 9. Sammlung (Berlin: Hertz, 1871)– comprises “Barbarossa,” “Die Stickerin von Treviso,” “Lottka,” “Der letzte Zentaur,” “Der verlorene Sohn,” “Das schöne Käthchen,” “Geoffroy und Garcinde,” and “Die Pfadfinderin”;
Die Franzosenbraut: Volksschauspiel in fünf Akten (Munich: Straub, 1871);
Der Friede: Ein Festspiel für das Münchener Hofund National-Theater, music by Baron von Perfall (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1871);
Gesammelte Werke, 38 volumes (volumes 1–29, Berlin: Hertz / volumes 30–38, Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1872–1914)–includes Die Pfälzer in Irland: Trauerspiel in fünf Akten, volume 9 (1872),
Kinder der Welt: Roman in sechs Büchern, 3 volumes (Berlin: Hertz, 1873); translated anonymously as Children of the World: A Novel (London: Chapman & Hall, 1882; New York: Munro, 1883);
Neue Novellen: Der Novellen 10. Sammlung (Berlin: Hertz, 1875)–comprises “Er soll dein Herr sein,” “Die ungarische Gräfin,” “Ein Märtyrer der Phantasie,” ‘Judith Stern,” and “Nerina”;
Ehre um Ehre: Schauspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1875);
Im Paradiese: Roman in sieben Büchern, 3 volumes (Berlin: Hertz, 1875); translated anonymously as In Paradise, 2 volumes (New York: Appleton, 1878);
Skizzenbuch: Lieder und Bilder (Berlin: Hertz, 1877);
Graf Königsmark: Trauerspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1877);
Elfride: Trauerspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1877);
Neue moralische Novellen: 11. Sammlung der Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1878)–comprises “Jorinde,” “Getreu bis in den Tod,” “Die Kaiserin von Spinetta,” “Das Seeweib,” and “Die Frau Marchesa”;
Zwei Gefangene: Novelle (Leipzig: Reclam, 1878); translated anonymously as Two Prisoners (London: Simpkin, 1893);
Das Ding an sich und andere Novellen: 12. Sammlung der Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1879)–comprises “Das Ding an sich,” “Zwei Gefangene,” “Die Tochter der Excellenz,” and “Beppe der Sternseher”;
Die Madonna im Oelwald: Novelle in Versen (Berlin: Hertz, 1879);
Verse aus Italien: Skizzen, Briefe und Tagebuchblätter (Berlin: Hertz, 1880);
Die Weiber von Schorndorf Hütorisches Schauspiel in vier Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1880);
Frau von F. und römische Novellen: 13. Sammlung der Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1881)-comprises “Frau von F.”; “Die talentvolle Mutter”; “Romulusenkel”; and “Die Hexe vom Korso,” translated by George W. Ingraham as The Witch of the Corso (New York: Munro, 1882);
Das Glück von Rothenburg: Novelle (Augsburg: Reichel, 1881); translated by C. L. Townsend as “The Spell of Rothenburg,” in The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, volume 13, edited by Kuno Francke and William Guild Howard (New York: German Publication Society, 1914), pp. 105–152;
Troubadour-Novellen: 14. Sammlung der Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1882; New York: Munro, 1883)-comprises “Der lahme Engel,” “Die Rache der Vizgräfin,” “Die Dichterin von Carcassonne,” “Der Mönch von Montaudon,” “Ehre über alles,” and “Der verkaufte Gesang”;
Alkibiades: Tragödie in drei Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1883);
Das Recht des Stärkeren: Schauspiel in drei Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1883);
Don Juan’s Ende: Trauerspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1883); translated anonymously as The Last Days of Don Juan (London, n.d.);
Unvergeβbare Worte und andere Novellen: 15. Sammlung der Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1883)–comprises “Unvergeßbare Worte,” “Die Eselin,” “Das Glück von Rothenburg,” and “Geteiltes Herz”;
Buch der Freundschaft: Novellen. 16. Sammlung der Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1883)-comprises “David und Jonathan”; “Grenzen der Menschheit”; and “Nino und Maso,” translated by Alfred Remy as “Nino and Maso: A Tale Drawn from a Sienese Chronicle,” in The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, volume 13 (1914), pp. 74–104;
Siechentrost: Novelle (Augsburg: Reichel, 1883);
Buch der Freundschaft: Neue Folge. 17. Sammlung der Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1884)-comprises “Siechentrost,” “Die schwarze Jakobe,” “Gute Kameraden,” and “Im Bunde der Dritte”;
Drei einaktige Trauerspiele und ein Lustspiel (Berlin: Hertz, 1884)–comprises Ehrenschulden, Frau Lukrezia, Simson, and Unter Brüdern: Lustspiel in einem Akt;
Spruchbüchlein (Berlin: Hertz, 1885);
Gedichte (Berlin: Hertz, 1885; enlarged, 1889);
Himmlische und irdische Liebe–F.V.R.l.A.–Auf Tod und Leben: Novellen. 18. Sammlung der Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1886; New York: Munro, 1886);
Getrennte Welten: Schauspiel in vier Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1886);
Die Hochzeit auf dem Aventin: Trauerspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1886);
Die Weisheit Salomo’s: Schauspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1887);
Der Roman der Stiftsdame: Eine Lebensgeschichte (Berlin: Hertz, 1887); translated by J. M. Percival [Mary Joanna Safford] as The Romance of the Canoness: A Life-History (New York: Appleton, 1887);
Villa Falconieri und andere Novellen: 19. Sammlung der Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1888)–comprises “Villa Falconieri,” “Doris Sengeberg,” “Emerenz,” and “Die Märtyrerin der Phantasie”;
Gott schütze mich vor meinen Freunden: Lustspiel in drei Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1888);
Prinzessin Sascha: Schauspiel in vier Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1888);
Weltuntergang: Volksschauspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1889);
Kleine Dramen: Erste Folge (Berlin: Hertz, 1889)–comprises Im Bunde der Dritte, Der Venusdurchgang, Nur keinen E fer, and In sittlicher Entrüstung;
Kleine Dramen: Zweite Folge (Berlin: Hertz, 1889)–comprises Eine erste Liebe, Eine Dante-Lektüre, Zwischen Lipp und Bechersrand, and Die schwerste Pflicht;
Liebeszauber: Orientalische Dichtung (Munich: Hanfstaengl, 1889);
Novellen: Auswahl fürs Haus, 3 volumes (Berlin: Hertz, 1890)–comprises “L’Arrabbiata,” “Anfang und Ende,” “Andrea Delfin,” “Unheilbar,” “Vetter Gabriel,” “Die beiden Schwestern,” “Er soll dein Herr sein,” “Der verlorene Sohn,” “Nerina,” “Unvergeβbare Worte,” “Die Dichterin von Carcassonne,” “Das Glück von Rothenburg,” and “Siechentrost”;
Ein überflüssiger Mensch: Schauspiel in vier Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1890);
Die schlimmen Brüder: Schauspiel in vier Akten und einem Vorspiel (Berlin: Hertz, 1891);
Weihnachtsgeschichten (Berlin: Hertz, 1891)–comprises “Eine Weihnachtsbescherung,” “Das Freifräulein,” “Die Geschichte von Herrn Wilibald und dem Frosinchen,” and “Die Dryas”;
Merlin: Roman in sieben Büchern, 3 volumes (Berlin: Hertz, 1892);
Marienkind (Stuttgart: Engelhorn, 1892);
Wahrheit?: Schauspiel in drei Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1892);
Ein unbeschriebenes Blatt: Lustspiel in vier Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1893);
Jungfer Justine: Schauspiel in vier Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1893);
Aus den Vorbergen: Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1893)–comprises “Vroni,” “Marienkind,” “Xaverl,” and “Dorfromantik”;
In der Geisterstunde und andere Spukgeschichten (Berlin: Hertz, 1894)–comprises “In der Geisterstunde: Die schöne Abigail,” translated by Frances A. Van Santford as At the Ghost Hour: The Fair Abigail (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1894); “In der Geisterstunde: Mittagszauber,” translated by Van Santford as “Mid-Day Magic,” in At the Ghost Hour: Mid-Day Magic (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1894); “In der Geisterstunde: Lisabethle,” translated by Van Santford as “Little Lisbeth,” in At the Ghost Hour: Mid-Day Magic; “In der Geisterstunde: Das Waldlachen,” translated by Van Santford as At the Ghost Hour: The Forest Laugh (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1894); “Martin der Streber”; and “Das Haus ‘Zum ungläubigen Thomas’ oder des Spirits Rache,” translated by Van Santford as At the Ghost Hour: The House of the Unbelieving Thomas (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1894);
Wolfram von Eschenbach: Ein Festspiel (Munich: Knorr & Hirth, 1894);
Melusine und andere Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1895)–comprises “Hochzeit auf Capri,” translated anonymously as “The Wedding at Capri,” Cosmopolitan, 16 (January 1894): 318–331; “Fedja”; “Donna Lionarda”; “Die Rächerin”; and “Melusine”;
Über allen Gipfeln: Roman (Berlin: Hertz, 1895);
Roland’s Schildknappen oder Die Komödie vom Glück: Volksmärchen in drei Akten und einem Vorspiel (Berlin: Hertz, 1896);
Vanina Vanini: Trauerspiel in vier Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1896);
Die Fornarina: Trauerspiel in fünf Akten (Leipzig: Naumann, 1896);
Das Goethe-Haus in Weimar (Berlin: Hera, 1896);
Verrathenes Glück; Emerenz: Zjaei Geschichten (Stuttgart: Krabbe, 1896);
Einer von Hunderten und Hochzeit auf Capri (Stuttgart: Franckh, 1896);
Abenteuer eines Blaustrüpfchens (Stuttgart: Krabbe, 1897); translated anonymously as “Adventures of a Little Blue-Stocking,” International, 1 (1896): 329-338;
Das Räthsel des Lebens und andere Charakterbilder (Berlin: Hertz, 1897)–comprises “Der Dichter und sein Kind,” “Der Siebengescheite,” “Ehrliche Leute,” “Einer von Hunderten,” “Ein Mädchenschicksal,” “Das Steinchen im Schuh,” and “Das Räthsel des Lebens”;
Männertreu; Der Sohn seines Vaters: Zwei Novellen (Stuttgart: Krabbe, 1897);
Drei neue Einakter (Berlin: Hertz, 1897)–comprises Der Stegreftrunk: Drama in einem Akt; Schwester Lotte: Lustspiel in einem Akt; and Auf den Dächern: Dramatischer Scherz in einem Akt;
Neue Gedichte und Jugendlieder (Berlin: Hertz, 1897);
Der Sohn seines Vaters und andere Novellen (Berlin: Hertz, 1898)–comprises “Der Sohn seines Vaters,” “Verratenes Glück,” “Medea,” “Männertreu,” and “Abenteuer eines Blaustrümpfchens”;
Der Bucklige von Schiras: Komödie in vier Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1898);
Martha’s Briefe an Maria: Ein Beitrag zur Frauenbewegung (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1898);
Neue Märchen (Berlin: Hertz, 1899)–comprises “Holdrio, oder Das Märchen vom wohlerzogenen Königssohn,” “Das Märchen vom Herzblut,” “Die vier Geschwister,” “Der Jungbrunnen,” “Lilith,” “Die gute Frau,” “Die Nixe,” “Das Märchen von Niels mit der offenen Hand,” ‘Johannisnacht,” and “Die Dryas”;
Das literaruche München: 25 Porträtskizzen (Munich: Bruckmann, 1899);
Die Macht der Stunde; Vroni: Zwei Novellen (Stuttgart: Krabbe, 1899); “Die Macht der Stunde” translated anonymously as “The Power of the Hour,” English Illustrated Magazine, 31 (May 1904): 155–183;
Maria von Magdala: Drama in fünf Akten (Berlin: Hertz, 1899); translated by A. I. Coleman as Mary of Magdala (New York: Lederer, 1900);
Fräulein Johanne; Auf der Alm: Zwaei Novellen (Stuttgart: Krabbe, 1900);
Der Schutzengel: Novelle (Leipzig: Keil, 1900);
Jugenderinnerungen und Bekenntnisse (Berlin: Hertz, 1900; revised and enlarged, 2 volumes, Stuttgart: Cotta, 1912);
Das verschleierte Bild zu Sais: Drama in drei Akten (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1901; New York: Lederer, 1901);
Tantalus; Mutter und Kind: Zwei Novellen (Stuttgart: Krabbe, 1901);
Ninon und andere Novellen (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1902)-comprises “Ninon,” “Zwei Seelen,” “Der Blinde von Dausenau,” “Fräulein Johanne,” “Tantalus,” and “Ein Mutterschicksal”;
Der Heilige: Trauerspiel in fünf Akten (Berlin & Stuttgart: Cotta, 1902);
Novellen vom Gardasee (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1902)– comprises “Gefangene Singvögel,” “Die Macht der Stunde,” “San Vigilio,” “Entsagende Liebe,” “Eine venezianische Nacht,” and “Antiquarische Briefe”;
Romane und Novellen, 42 volumes (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1902–1912);
Moralische Unmöglichkeiten und andere Novellen (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1903)-comprises “Moralische Unmöglichkeiten,” “Er selbst,” “Zwei Wittwen,” and “Ein Idealist”;
Ein Wintertagebuch (Gardone 1901–1902) (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1903);
Mythen und Mysterien (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1904)–comprises “Lilith: Ein Mysterium,” “Kain: Ein Mysterium,” “Perseus: Puppentragödie in vier Akten,” “Am Thor der Unterwelt,” “Der Waldpriester: Ein Satyrspiel,” and “Gespräche im Himmel”;
Crone Stäudlin: Roman (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1905);
Die thörichten Jungfrauen: Lustspiel in drei Akten (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1905);
Ein Canadier: Drama in drei Akten (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1905);
Sechs kleine Dramen (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1905)– comprises Eine alte Geschichte: Familienszene in einem Akt; Die Zaubergeige: Drama in einem Akt; Zu treu: Genrebild in einem Akt; Horaz und Lydia; Der Stern vonMantua: Schauspiel in zwei Akten; and Die Tochter der Semiramis: Tragödie in einem Akt;
Victoria Regia und andere Novellen (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1906)–comprises “Victoria Regia,” “Lucile,” “Tante Lene,” “Die Ärztin,” “Der Hausgeist,” and “Ein Ring”;
Gegen den Strom: Eine weltliche Klostergeschichte (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1907);
Menschen und Schicksale: Charakterbilder (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1908)-comprises “Das Karussell,” “Das Unglück, Verstand zu haben,” “Lottchen Täppe,” “Verfehlter Beruf,” “Die gute Tochter,” “Ein Luftschiffer,” “Mei Bübche,” “Fromme Lüge,” “Florian,” “Iwan Kalugin,” “Ein Christuskopf,” “Ein Menschenfeind,” and “Ein literarischer Vehmrichter”;
Helldunkles Leben: Novellen (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1909)-com-prises “Unüberwindliche Mächte,” “Rita,” “Ein unpersönlicher Mensch,” “Eine Collegin,” and “Clelia”;
Die Geburt der Venus: Roman (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1909);
König Saul: Biblische Historie in fünf Akten (Leipzig: Reclam, 1909);
Mutter und Tochter: Drama in fünf Akten (Leipzig: Reclam, 1909);
Das Ewigmenschliche: Erinnerungen aus einem Alltagsleben von ***; Ein Familienhaus: Novelle (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1910);
plaudereien eines alten Freundespaares (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1912)–comprises “Faustrecht,” “Das schwächere Geschlecht,” “Altruismus,” “Don Juan,” “Erste Liebe,” “Oliva von Planta,” “Vendetta,” and “Der Jubilar”;
Letzte Novellen (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1914)–comprises “Die bessere Welt,” “Fanchette,” and “Unwiederbringlich.”
Editions and Collections: Ausgewählte Gedichte, edited by Erich Petzet (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1920);
Gesammelte Novellen, 5 volumes, edited by Erich Petzet (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1921);
Italienische Novellen, 2 volumes (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1924);
Gesammelte Werke, 15 volumes (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1924); new edition (Hildesheim, Zurich & New York: Olms, 1984–2002);
Die Reise nach dem Glück: Eine Auswahl aus dem Werk, selected by Gerhard Mauz (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1959);
Das Mädchen von Treppi: Italienische Liebesgeschichten (Berlin: Der Morgen, 1965);
Andrea Delfin und andere Novellen (Berlin & Weimar: Aufbau, 1966);
Die Hexe vom Corso und andere Novellen mit der Novellentheorie (Munich: Goldmann, 1969);
L’Arrabbiata; Das Mädchen von Treppi, edited by Karl Pörnbacher (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1969);
Novellen, introduction by Manfred Schunicht (New York & London: Johnson Reprint, 1970)–comprises “L’Arrabbiata,” “Andrea Delfin,” “Kleopatra,” “Beatrice,” “Der letzte Zentaur,” “Der lahme Engel,” “Das Glück von Rothenburg,” “Die Kaiserin von Spinetta,” “Siechentrost,” “Einleitung zu Deutscher Novellenschatz”; and “Meine Novellistik”;
Werke, mit einem Essay von Theodor Fontane, 2 volumes, edited by Bernhard Knick, Johanna Knick, and Hildegard Korth (Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1980);
Novellen, Die Große Erzähler-Bibliothek der Weltliteratur, volume 54 (Dortmund: Harenberg, 1986)– comprises “L’Arrabbiata,” “Helene Morten,” “Andrea Delfin,” “Der letzte Zentaur,” ‘Judith Stern,” and “Victoria Regia”;
Novellen, edited by Rainer Hillenbrand (Zurich: Manesse, 1998).
Editions in English: Four Phases of Love, translated by G. H. Kingsley (London: Routledge, 1857)–comprises “Eye-Blindness and Soul-Blindness,” “Marion,” “La Rabbiata,” and “By the Banks of the Tiber”;
L’Arrabiata and Other Tales, translated by Mary Wilson (Leipzig: Tauchnitz / New York: Leypoldt & Holt, 1867)–comprises “L’Arrabiata,” “Count Ernest’s Home,” “Blind,” and “Walter’s Little Mother”;
The Dead Lake and Other Tales, translated by Wilson (Leipzig: Tauchnitz / New York: Low, Marston, Searle &Rivington, 1870)–comprises “A Fortnight at the Dead Lake,” “Doomed,” “Beatrice,” and “Beginning and End”;
Barbarossa and Other Tales, translated by L. C. S. (Leipzig: Tauchnitz / London: Low, Marston, Low & Searle, 1874)–comprises “Barbarossa,” “The Embroideress of Treviso,” “Lottka,” “The Lost Son,” “The Fair Kate,” and “Geoffroy and Garcinde”;
Tales from the German of Paul Heyse (New York: Appleton, 1879)-comprises “Count Ernest’s Home,” “The Dead Lake,” “The Fury (L’Arrabiata),” and ‘Judith Stern”;
Selected Stories, from the German of Paul Heyse (Chicago: Schick, 1886)-comprises “L’Arrabiata,” “Beppe, the Star-Gazer,” and “Maria Francisca”;
La Marchesa, a Tale of the Riviera and Other Tales, translated by John Philips (London: Stock, 1887)–comprises “La Marchesa,” “Her Excellency’s Daughter,” and “A Divided Heart”;
Words Never to Be Forgotten and The Donkey: Two Novellettes from the German of Paul Heyse, translated by A. E. Fordyce (Union Springs, N.Y.: Hoff, 1888);
A Divided Heart, and Other Stories, translated by Constance Stewart Copeland (New York: Brentano’s, 1894)-comprises “A Divided Heart,” “Minka,” and “Rothenburg on the Tauber.”
TRANSLATIONS: Spanisches Liederbuch[anthology], translated and edited and with contributions by Heyse and Emanuel Geibel (Berlin: Hertz, 1852);
José Caveda, Geschichte der Baukumt in Spanien, edited by Franz Kugler (Stuttgart: Ebner & Seubert, 1858);
Italienisches Liederbuch[anthology], edited and translated by Heyse (Berlin: Hertz, 1860);
William Shakespeare, Antonius und Kleopatra (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1867);
Shakespeare, Timon von Athen (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1868);
Giuseppe Guisti, Gedichte, edited and translated by Heyse (Berlin: Hofmann, 1875);
Giacomo Leopardi, Werke (Berlin: Hertz, 1878);
Italienische Dichter seit der Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts: Übersehungen und Studien [anthology], 5 volumes (volumes 1–4, Berlin: Hertz; volume 5, Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1889–1905);
Italienische Volksmärchen [anthology] (Munich: Lehmann, 1914);
Drei italienische Lustspiele aus der Zeit der Renaissance, translated by Heyse (Jena: Diederichs, 1914)–comprises Die Cassaria, by Ludovico Ariosto; Die Aridosia, by Lorenzo de’ Medici; and Mandragoh, by Niccolò Machiavelli.
OTHER: “Frohe Botschaft,” “Freischarenlied,” “Hurrah!,” “Unser Wahlspruch,” “An die deutschen Frauen,” “Morgenandacht,” “Hurrah!,” “Einen Mann!” in Fünfzehn neue deutsche Lieder zu alten Singweisen: Den deutschen Männern Ernst Moritz Arndt und Ludwig Uhland gewidmet, edited by Franz Kugler (Berlin, 1848), pp. 5–6, 13–14, 22–25, 27–30;
Romanische inedita auf Italiämschen Bibliotheken gesammelt, edited by Heyse (Berlin: Hertz, 1856);
Antologia dei moderni poeti italiani, edited by Heyse (Stuttgart: Hallberger, 1869);
Deutscher Novellenschatz, 24 volumes, edited by Heyse and Hermann Kurz (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1871–1876);
Novellenschatz des Auslandes, 14 volumes, edited by Heyse and Kurz (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1872–1875);
Kurz, Gesammelte Werke: Mit einer Biographie des Dichters, 10 volumes, edited by Heyse (Stuttgart: Kröner, 1874);
Italienische Novellisten, 6 volumes, edited by Heyse (Leipzig: Grunow, 1877–1878);
Lodovico Ariosto, Rasender Roland, 2 volumes, translated by Kurz, edited by Heyse (Breslau: Schottlaender, 1880–1881);
Neues Münchener Dichterbuch, edited, with contributions, by Heyse (Stuttgart: Kröner, 1882);
Neuer deutscher Novellenschatz, 24 volumes, edited by Heyse and Ludwig Laistner (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1884–1887);
“Meine Erstlingswerke,” in Die Geschichte des Erstlingswerkes, edited by Karl Emil Franzos (Leipzig: Titze, 1894), pp. 53–63;
Ludovico Ariostos Satiren, translated by Otto Gildemeister, edited by Heyse (Berlin: Behr, 1904);
Hermann Lingg, Ausgewählte Gedichte, edited by Heyse (Stuttgart & Berlin: Cotta, 1905).
SELECTED PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS-UNCOLLECTED: “Die Geister des Rheins: Ein Märchenschwank,” Süddeutsche Monatshefte, 7 (1910): 417–441;
“Luco de Grimaud: Eine ungedruckte Versnovelle von Paul Heyse,” Euphorion, 29 (1928): 471–479.
Paul Heyse, editor, translator, essayist, and author of novellas, novels, poetry, and dramas, was revered by the German middle class throughout much of his life as the successor to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He was such a prominent and prolific author that some of his contemporaries maintained that the second half of the nineteenth century would be remembered as the “Age of Heyse.” Others accused him of endangering morality through the glorification of the nonconformist in his works, although twentieth-century critics tended to regard his novellas as compromising tributes to the very social order they seem to attack.
Many of Heyse’s works were first published in literary periodicals and were sought after by German and foreign editors–even prestigious periodicals such as the Deutsche Rundschau–because of their immense popularity. He played a leading role in the cultural and social life of Munich and was also a proponent of education for young women. He never hesitated to take a stand against any form of censorship or prejudice. Heyse also was known for his kindness toward writers who were trying to get established. Because of his reputation, his great contemporaries Gottfried Keller, Theodor Storm, and Theodor Fontane and younger authors such as Frank Wedekind sought his opinion and support of their works. He translated William Shakespeare and Spanish poetry, but his primary interest in translation was Italian literature, and he became the most important mediator of Italian literature in Germany. When he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1910, his reputation as a major author had already begun to wane. Since the 1980s, however, his collected works have been republished, and there has been renewed scholarly interest in his life and works, especially the novellas and translations, for their significance as a reflection of the popular taste of the German middle class in the nineteenth century.
Paul Johann Ludwig Heyse was born in Berlin on 15 March 1830, the second of two sons of Karl Wilhelm Ludwig and Julie Saaling Heyse. Both his father and his grandfather Johann Christian August Heyse were well-known philologists. Prior to his appointment to the faculty at the University of Berlin, Karl Heyse had been a tutor to Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. There was a connection to Mendelssohn on Heyse’s mother’s side, as well: her mother and Mendelssohn’s mother were cousins. Julie Heyse came from a prominent banking family, was fluent in French and English, and was a member of Rahel Varnhagen von Ense’s literary salon. In imitation of Goethe, Paul Heyse attributed his own balanced personality to the contrasting natures of his conscientious Germanic father and his witty, irrepressible “Oriental” mother.
Heyse excelled as a pupil at the Friedrich Wilhelms-Gymnasium, especially in classical languages and French. While still in school he helped proofread the dictionary his father was preparing; wrote his first play, a tragedy titled “Don Juan de Pedillo” that was never published or performed; and began writing nature and love poems. In 1845 he established a poets’ society, the “Club,” with his classmates Bernhard Endrulat, Richard Göhde, and Felix von Stein, the great-grandson of Goethe’s friend Charlotte von Stein. In poems written between 1845 and 1847 he described his feelings for Stein’s sister Anna, a love thwarted by class differences. Heyse’s early poems were clearly influenced by Heinrich Heine and Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, two of the favorite models of the Club’s young poets. Except for Endrulat, Göhde, and Stein, Heyse had little rapport with his classmates; eventually, he realized that he would have to compromise with the values of his peers. Some critics have regarded this attitude as the basis for the immense popularity of his stories–he gave his readers what they wanted–and, at the same time, the reason for the disturbing lack of realism in his works.
In 1846 the poet Emanuel Geibel saw some poems Heyse had written in school and arranged a meeting with him. Under Geibel’s influence Heyse’s inclination toward an emphasis on form over content was further cultivated. In March 1847 Heyse matriculated at the University of Berlin to study classical philology. As a student he wrote political poetry in support of the revolution of 1848, including his first published poem, Frühlingsanfang 1848 (1848, The Beginning of Spring 1848) and the seven poems he contributed to Franz Kugler’s Fünfzehn neue deutsche Lieder zu alten Singweisen (1848, Fifteen New German Songs for Old Singing Styles). The events of 1848 made a great impact on the eighteen-year-old Heyse. Seeing his contemporaries die in the streets probably helped inspire the central theme in his works: the conflict between the individual and the inflexible forces of society. The events he witnessed may also be responsible for the nonrevolutionary tendency in his works.
In cultured Berlin homes and salons the young Heyse came in contact with artists, musicians, and writers such as Fontane, Mendelssohn, Wilhelm Hensel, Peter Cornelius, and Franz Liszt. Especially important for Heyse’s development were the associations formed in the home of the art historian Franz Kugler. There he met his future wife–Kugler’s daughter Margarethe–as well as Fontane and the historian Jakob Burckhardt, who inspired his love for Italy and the Renaissance. Fontane, well known at the time for his ballads, inspired Heyse’s competitive spirit. Heyse regarded the older poet as a worthy opponent, and, despite some friction at first, they became lifelong friends and carried on a correspondence until Fontane’s death in 1898.
In the spring of 1849, at Burckhardt’s suggestion, Heyse transferred to the University of Bonn. During his summer vacation in 1849 he visited Burckhardt in Basel and began a correspondence with him that continued until 1890. Burckhardt encouraged and cultivated Heyse’s veneration of harmonious beauty, a veneration that colored Heyse’s works and his perception of reality. Before returning to Bonn he went hiking in the Swiss Alps, where a chambermaid in his hotel fell in love with him. She was possibly the earliest inspiration for a character type that appears in many of his stories: a girl of classical Roman beauty and elemental passion. In January 1850 Heyse changed his major to Romance languages and literatures, a field that complemented his literary talents. His first published play, Francesca von Rimini, and the fairy-tale collection Der Jungbrunnen (The Fountain of Youth) were published the same year. The inspiration for Francesca von Rimini was Heyse’s love affair with Sophie Ritschl, the young wife of a Bonn professor. The tragic situation of lovers who go against conventional morality was repeated often in his works. Heyse returned to Berlin in 1851 to complete his doctoral dissertation on the poetry of the troubadours. His preoccupation with Italian, Spanish, and French literature resulted in many translations, several of which were set to music. It also left its mark on his literary works, which frequently have southern European settings, characters, flavor, and form.
While writing his dissertation, Heyse immersed himself again in the social life of the Berlin artists and writers. He had joined the literary group “Der Tunnel über der Spree” (The Tunnel over the River Spree) in January 1849. Most of the group’s members were would-be writers from the Prussian military and bureaucracy, but Kugler, Fontane, and Geibel were also members. Everyone in the group had a special Tunnel name; Heyse’s was “Hölty II,” after the eighteenth-century author of love and nature poetry Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty. Each member’s literary endeavors were subject to the others’ criticism, which made the Tunnel a valuable apprenticeship for a young writer. Heyse became a celebrity in the Tunnel as well as in its offshoot, “Rütli” (named for a place on Lake Luzerne), to which Geibel, Fontane, Kugler, and Storm also belonged. He wrote his verse novella Die Brüder (1852, The Brothers) during this period. In Berlin literary circles a Heyse cult developed that compared his form-conscious works to those of the young Goethe.
In June 1852 Heyse was awarded a doctorate in Romance philology. The same year brought the publication of his and Geibel’s Spanisches Liederbuch (Book of Spanish Songs), a collection of translations of Spanish poems and folk songs, many of which were later set to music and remain popular today. The Spanisches Liederbuch also includes original poems by Heyse and Geibel under Spanish pseudonyms. Heyse continued his activity as a translator and editor throughout his life.
In the fall of 1852 Heyse received a grant from the Prussian Ministry of Culture to study unpublished Provençal manuscripts in Italy. He traveled with Otto Ribbeck, a former classmate in Bonn, who was consulting manuscripts in Italian libraries for an edition of the works of Virgil. In Rome, Heyse stayed with his uncle Theodor Heyse, who had translated the works of Catullus. There was a sizable German colony in Rome, and Heyse became acquainted with Arnold Böcklin and many other artists and sculptors. He found ample opportunity to make sketches of dark-haired, dark-eyed Italian girls who epitomized his idea of classical Mediterranean beauty. The high point of his Italian journey was the spring of 1853, which he spent in Naples and Sorrento, enthusiastically observing the life of the people. He eventually did publish a volume of old manuscripts, Romanische inedita (1856), but the main product of the trip was a series of poems and stories with Italian settings and passionate female characters, works that became associated with Heyse in the minds of the German middle-class reading public for the rest of his life.
Heyse spent two weeks of his stay in the Rosa Magra, an inn in Sorrento frequented by artists, with Josef Viktor von Scheffel, the author of historical novels such as Der Trompeter von Säckingen (1854; translated as The Trumpeter of Säkkingen, 1877). Nearly twenty-five years later he sent a poem to Scheffel in which he recalled an incident with a servant girl at the inn who inspired his first published novella, “L’Arrabbiata” (translated as “La Rabbiata,” 1857). He portrayed her in these lines as a tan, uninhibited fifteen-year-old who scurried about the dining room and nearly bit him with her sharp, white cat’s teeth when he grabbed her by the hair. In 1854 the novella appeared in Argo, the literary yearbook edited by Fontane, and established Heyse’s reputation. It went through fourteen editions between 1857 and 1914, in addition to ten editions in the first collection of Heyse’s novellas (1855) and many textbook editions for American students (as recently as 2003 in An Anthology of German Novellas, edited by Siegfried Weing).
“L’Arrabbiata” opens with Sorrento fishermen casting off at dawn in the Bay of Naples. In one of the boats sit the young fisherman Antonio and the local priest, Father Curato, who is taking Holy Communion to a wealthy patroness in Capri. The two men are joined by a striking young woman named Laurella, barely eighteen, who has a habit of tossing her head in a wild and somewhat imperious manner. Externally she is the typical Heyse Italian female, with her brown face, black hair, full lips, fine nose, and flashing black eyes. Laurella’s coyness and reserve result from her father’s abusive treatment of his wife. Laurella is wary of suitors, since she fears that they might treat her the same way, but she accepts Antonio’s invitation to return to Sorrento with him in the afternoon while the priest remains on the island. The young fisherman declares his love for her; when she rejects him, he tries to drown her and himself. She bites his hand, jumps overboard, and starts swimming for shore. When Antonio rows after her and apologizes, she climbs back on board. That evening she brings him herbs to stop the bleeding and reveals that she has been in love with him for a long time but was afraid to trust her emotions. When Father Curato hears her confession, he is secretly delighted that Laurella’s stubbornness has been overcome by true love. Laurella’s encounter with Antonio makes her realize that she cannot act contrary to her inmost nature. The theme of self-realization through love is repeated throughout Heyse’s stories.
Heyse returned to Berlin in September 1853. During the following months his lifelong friendship with Storm began. Heyse corresponded with most of the major German literary figures of the second half of the nineteenth century, but his correspondence with Storm reveals the closest personal relationship. In 1853 Heyse also began writing for Friedrich Eggers’s Lite-raturblatt des deutschen Kunstblattes (Literary Journal of the German Art Journal). He contributed perceptive essays on Storm and Eduard Mörike to the journal and served as its editor in 1858. In March 1854, at Geibel’s recommendation, Heyse received an invitation to live in Munich on a stipend from King Maximilian II of Bavaria with no obligation except to write and participate in the symposia of authors and artists sponsored by the court. The appointment also gave Heyse the right to lecture at the University of Munich, but he preferred to devote his time and energy to writing. Storm, with a tinge of envy, compared Heyse’s position to that of Goethe at the court at Weimar. Heyse enjoyed and encouraged the comparison to Goethe.
On 15 May 1854 Heyse married Margarethe Kugler. They settled in Munich and had two sons, one of whom died at the age of twelve, and two daughters. The Berliner Heyse quickly adjusted to Munich, where the lifestyle reminded him of Italy, and he resisted repeated invitations from Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Saxony to move to Weimar.
Maximilian wanted to make Munich a cultural and scientific capital, and Heyse and Geibel quickly became the nucleus of the literary branch of this endeavor. In 1856 Heyse and the Thuringian poet Julius Grosse founded the literary group “Der heilige Teich der Krokodile” (The Holy Pond of the Crocodiles), generally known as “Krokodil,” in an attempt to reconcile the native Bavarian authors with the predominantly North German writers whom Maximilian had brought in for his symposia. The founding members included Geibel; the Munich poet Hermann Lingg, from whose poem “Das Krokodil zu Singapur” (1854, The Crocodile of Singapore) the group’s name was derived; Friedrich Bodenstedt; Felix Dahn; Heinrich Leuthold; the journalist Adolf Wilbrandt, who later became director of the Vienna Burgtheater; and the medievalist and translator Wilhelm Hertz. Scheffel was an honorary member. Unlike the Tunnel membership, most of the Crocodiles, who also became known as the “Münchner Dichterkreis” (Munich Poets’ Circle), were professional writers or academics who wrote on the side. Heyse was the president of the group, Geibel the spiritual leader. The Crocodiles met weekly in various coffeehouses for twenty-seven years.
Heyse wrote more than forty plays, including historical dramas and plays dealing with classical antiquity and biblical themes. His plays enjoyed a respectable number of performances. The tragedy Hadrian (1865), considered by some to be Heyse’s best play, deals with the relationship between the first-century Roman emperor Hadrian and the Greek youth Antinous, representatives respectively of the insufficiency of wealth and power and the contentment to be found in a life of simplicity and freedom. Hans Lange (1866), a theatrically effective Prussian patriotic play, was performed on every major German stage. Colberg (1868), an historical drama commemorating the defense of the Prussian harbor town Colberg against superior French forces in 1807, was performed in Berlin more than 139 times through the end of World War I and sold 180,000 copies during Heyse’s lifetime, assisted by the patriotic fervor of 1870–1871 and 1914.
Heyse’s wife had died on 30 September 1862; in 1867 he married Anna Schubart, a beautiful, dark-haired seventeen-year-old from Munich society. Near the Glyptothek Museum he built a splendid villa, which became a center of Munich cultural life; he and his wife spent the winters in a second home in Gardone on Italy’s Lake Garda. The son and daughter from Heyse’s second marriage both died in childhood. In the 1860s Heyse openly supported the struggles for freedom in Italy and Schleswig-Holstein; in 1868 he gave up his stipend from Ludwig II, who had succeeded Maximilian in 1864, to preserve his political independence.
The collection Novellen und Terzinen (Novellas and Terza Rimas) appeared in 1867. The narrator in one of these stories, “Beatrice,” introduces the concept of the tragic conflict between the norms of society and the instinctive desires of those nonconformists whom Heyse refers to elsewhere as “Ausnahmemenschen” (exceptional individuals). He calls this phenomenon “der Streit der Pflichten” (the conflict of duties). His most extensive statement of the concept is found in the introduction to his Moralische Novellai (1869, Moral Novellas), an essay titled “Brief an Frau Toutlemonde in Berlin” (Letter to Mrs. Everybody in Berlin) and written in response to the criticism provoked by the Novellen und Terzinen.(“Frau Toutlemonde” is generally considered to refer to Fontane’s wife, Emilie, a devoted admirer of Heyse’s works.) Heyse regards conventional morality as a universal code of conduct, which, in attempting to guarantee the general welfare, sometimes infringes on the rights of the exceptional individual. The latter is justified in acting in harmony with his or her instinctive personal morality, although such action inevitably leads to conflict with the forces of society and convention and frequently to the death or lifelong unhappiness of the exceptional individual. The conflict of duties provided Heyse, by his own account, with many of his most interesting and challenging themes.
“Die Stickerin von Treviso” (1871, The Embroideress of Treviso) was one of Heyse’s favorite stories. In fourteenth-century Italy the knight Attilio Buonfigh helps his fellow townsmen regain the city of Treviso from the soldiers of Vicenza. Recovering from a neck wound at the home of Emilia Scarpa, a citizen of Vicenza, he agrees to marry her in an attempt to end the feud that has separated their cities for years. When he returns to Treviso, however, he falls in love with the embroideress Gianna. As so often is the case in Heyse’s works, true love is accompanied by self-realization. Attilio asks why his eyes were opened too late, why he did not come to know himself until after he had made a vow to Emilia. He and Gianna resolve to spend each night together until his wedding and then never to see each other again. When he is mortally wounded in a tournament held in honor of his fiancée’s arrival in Treviso, however, Gianna sacrifices her reputation by claiming the right to be at her lover’s side during his last moments alive. For the Ausnahmemensch, the supreme obligation is fidelity to oneself.
The novella “Himmlische und irdische Liebe” (1886, Heavenly and Earthly Love), another of Heyse’s favorites, justifies adultery when one partner is unworthy or inimical to the personal development of the other. Professor Chlodwig commits suicide when, for the sake of public opinion, his poetess wife refuses to let him leave her for the simple and emotionally honest seamstress Traud. Before he met Traud, Chlodwig had defended German bourgeois morality, even philistinism, as potentially beneficial; afterward he rejects convention as restrictive and destructive. Heyse implies that it is each partner’s duty to promote the other’s potential; where there is no mutual support, the individual has the right to be unfaithful to a spouse rather than deny his or her own inner voice. In a letter to Fontane of 2 January 1879, Heyse said that he preferred a tragic resolution to such conflicts rather than a life founded on halfhearted relationships and wretched compromises.
Occasionally, Heyse lets the conflict with society end in resignation rather than tragedy. In the novella “Der letzte Zentaur” (1871, The Last Centaur) he selected his friend Bonaventura Genelli, who was known for his paintings of centaurs and who had died in 1868, to represent the strong personality in conflict with the conservative society around him. In an elaborate story-within-a-story-within-a-story Genelli relates his encounter with the mythical creature, which suddenly appeared in the philistine milieu of a Bavarian village. The artists to whom he tells the story are lonely outsiders like himself who would have admired the classical beauty of the centaur.
One August, Genelli relates, he went to a mountain village outside Munich to escape the heat of the city. As he sat at an inn drinking Tirolean wine, the giant centaur approached, followed by a crowd of curious children and old people. The creature grabbed two bottles of wine from the pretty waitress Nanni, drank the contents, and asked Genelli–in Greek, of course-where he was. He explained that he had been making his rounds as a country doctor to shepherds and bear hunters, had become intoxicated from the homemade concoctions with which they paid for his services, and had gone into an ice grotto to sleep it off. When he awakened, he had found the forests thinner, the wine more sour, and the women (except for Nanni) less graceful and shapely than before. On the outskirts of the village he had been moved by the sight of a crucifix and had offered to help the man on the cross. Attracted by the sounds emanating from a church, he had been struck by the beauty of a statue of a blue-eyed, blonde Virgin Mary. The village priest had dissuaded the curious villagers from associating with the creature, who surely had never been baptized and was probably immoral; only Genelli was friendly to the centaur.
Genelli, the centaur, and Nanni left the inn together. At a church carnival the centaur partook of more Tirolean wine and stole customers from the concession where a two-headed calf was on display. When the musicians began to play, he set the voluptuous Nanni on his bare back and enthusiastically joined the townsfolk in a dance. The festivities were interrupted, however, by the concessionaire and the village police, who had been called by Nanni’s fiancé. Genelli explained to the centaur that these men were hunters who wanted to lock him in a stall to reflect on the benefits of the law and the progress of civilization. The creature jumped over the heads of the crowd, Nanni still on his back, and ran away. High on a mountainside he released the girl to return to her fiancé and jumped into a gorge, never to be seen again. The story implies that Genelli and his artist friends cannot be at home in the bourgeois Catholic society of nineteenth-century Bavaria, since their ideals and appetites are those of classical antiquity. Genelli has accepted ostracism as the price of his creativity.
In an age that paralleled the Victorian era in England, Heyse was considered by many a dangerously immoral writer, a reputation that contributed to his immense popularity during his lifetime. Most of Heyse’s novellas either portray Italy–or young Italian women–as an idealized model of natural beauty or depict the psychological problems of characters living in nineteenth-century Germany. Heyse tended to portray exceptional cases rather than timeless human conflicts and problems; nevertheless, some of his novellas still make for diverting reading because of their cosmopolitan style and exotic subject matter, especially those set in pre-nineteenth-century Italy or France such as “Die Stickerin von Treviso”; “Andrea Delfin” (1862; translated, 1864), a story of failed revenge in eighteenth-century Venice; and “Geoffroy und Garcinde” (1871), a troubadour novella dealing with conflict between filial piety and personal happiness in medieval Provence. Of those set in Germany, “Der letzte Zentaur” offers a contrast of nineteenth-century Bavaria with the naturalness of classical antiquity.
Heyse co-edited two important collections of German novellas, the twenty-four-volume Deutscher Novellenschätz(1871–1876, Treasury of German Novellas) and Neuer deutscher Novellenschatz (1884-1887, New Treasury of German Novellas), likewise in twenty-four volumes. He also edited an anthology of works of modern Italian poets, Antologia dei moderni poeti italiani (1869); the fourteen-volume Novellenschatz des Auslandes (1872-1875, Treasury of Foreign Novellas); and the six-volume Italienische Novellisten (1877-1878, Italian Short-Story Writers). He edited and translated two collections of Italian poetry: Italienisches Liederbuch (1860, Book of Italian Songs) and Italienische Dichter seit der Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts: Übersetzungen und Studien (1889-1905, Italian Poets since the Middle of the Eighteenth Century: Translations and Studies), as well as selected works of Giuseppe Guisti (1875) and Giacomo Leopardi (1878). He also translated William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (1867) and Timon of Athens (1868) and a collection of comedies by Lodovico Ariosto, Niccoló Machiavelli, and Lorenzo de’ Medici (1914). His five-volume Italienische Dichter seit der Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts made the works of Leopardi and D’Annunzio available to the German-speaking public for the first time. Heyse was the most important mediator of Italian literature in Germany in the nineteenth century.
Heyse’s statements on the German novella in his introduction to Deutscher Novellenschatz were embraced by his and later generations as one of the most important theories of the genre. Each of the stories in the collection, Heyse maintained, possesses a “Grundmotif” (basic motif) that can be summarized in a few lines. He compares the basic motif to a “starke Silhouette” (strong silhouette) in painting and cites as an example the story from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decamerone (1351–1353) of the impoverished nobleman who prepares his prized falcon as a meal for his lady. Heyse suggests that a storyteller ask himself at the outset “wo ‘der Falke’ sei, das Spezifische, das diese Geschichte von tausend anderen unterscheidet” (where “the falcon” is, the specific thing that distinguishes this story from a thousand others). Heyse’s idea soon became known as the “falcon theory,” a designation he himself eventually adopted. Many scholars have misinterpreted the demand for a “falcon” as a requirement that every “true” novella include a symbol, a requirement that Heyse never mentions in his comments on the novella.
As the novel became the dominant form of fiction in Germany, Heyse turned to the genre. Between 1873 and 1906 he produced seven novels. The best known are Kinder der Welt (1873; translated as Children of the World, 1882) and Im Paradiese (1875; translated as In Paradise, 1878). Although both were best-sellers, Heyse never attained the level of technical skill in the novel that he had in the more concentrated form of the novella.
Kinder der Welt deals with artists and academics in Berlin during the forming of the Second German Empire. Heyse divides the characters into the children of God and the children of the world. The former group includes the artist König; his daughter, the young artist Lea; and the theology student Lorinser. The children of the world are the young philosopher and freethinker Edwin; his sickly brother Balder; Toinette Marchand, the mistress of a count; the music teacher Christiane Falk; and the poet Heinrich Mohr. Edwin is attracted to Toinette, who marries the count although she does not love him. After Balder’s death Edwin suffers from a severe fever and is consoled by reading the diary of his former pupil Lea, which was entrusted to him by her father, König. He falls in love with her. They get married and move to a city in Thuringia, where he works as a mathematics teacher. Several years later Edwin visits his friend Mohr and learns that Toinette has become estranged from her husband after bearing him a child and that she is mentally ill. At Mohr’s urging, Edwin visits Toinette and tries to help her. She declares her love for him, but now it is he who cannot return her affection, because he loves Lea. Soon thereafter, Toinette dies as a result of a fall from a horse. A few years later Edwin, who is now a contented husband and father, takes his family back to Berlin, where he visits his old haunts and the friends of his youth.
Both Kinder der Welt and Im Paradiese, which deals with the artists’ world in Munich, aroused controversy for advocating free love. In Heyse’s conception of love and marriage, which owes much to German romanticism, a relationship derives its sanctity not from the external bonds of marriage but from a balance of physical and spiritual attraction. Even so, Edwin marries and remains faithful to Lea, and the lovers in Im Paradiese feel required to have their union sanctified by church and state once they have children.
Beginning with Die Weisheit Salome’s (1887, The Wisdom of Solomon), Heyse wrote several plays based on biblical themes. Maria von Magdala (1899; translated as Mary of Magdala, 1900), which was later adapted by Maurice Maeterlinck, provoked scandals both in Germany and in New York for its portrayal of Judas as a Hebrew patriot, disillusioned follower of Jesus, and lover of Mary Magdalene. Next to “L’Arrabbiata,” it appears to be the work of Heyse most frequently translated into English. Its banning by the Prussian censors in 1903 created so much interest in the play that it went through twenty-eight editions in that year alone.
Heyse’s works seldom deviate from the theme of the exceptional individual in conflict with the forces of society. He has been placed among such representatives of the Gründerzeit (the years of reckless financial speculation following the Franco-Prussian War) as Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the mature Storm, portrayers of larger-than-life figures who live according to their own rules. During the 1880s and 1890s Heyse was the object of severe personal attacks from critics who considered his works immoral and from the naturalists, for whom his work represented everything that was artificial and untrue in the works of the older generation. Heyse responded with the novel Merlin (1892), about an idealistic young dramatist who stages his last play in an insane asylum and then commits suicide.
On his eightieth birthday Heyse was elevated to the nobility, was made an honorary citizen of Munich, and had a street in the city named after him. In an article in the Munich Allgemeine Zeitung, the Munich professor Franz Muncker argued that Stefan George’s efforts on behalf of artistic form would not have been possible without the influence of Heyse’s accomplishments in poetry and prose. The same year he turned eighty, Heyse was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first German literary author to be so honored. (The first German to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature was the historian Theodor Mommsen in 1902, followed in 1908 by the philosopher Rudolf Eucken.) Illness prevented Heyse from traveling to Stockholm for the award ceremonies.
In establishing the prize for literature, Alfred Nobel indicated that recipients should be recognized for “the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.” Carl David af Wirsén, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy from 1901 until 1912, interpreted Nobel’s adjective as “idealistic.” Heyse was awarded the Nobel Prize near the end of his life and career in recognition of his entire body of work and his idealism. Early in 1910 Muncker nominated Heyse for the prize and acquired the signatures of eighty-two academics in Germany and Austria. It was the first time Heyse’s name had been put forward as a candidate. Twenty-five candidates were proposed that year, including Anatole France, Georg Brandes, and Maurice Maeterlinck. In the nomination, Muncker called Heyse “the most venerable living German author” and cited his accomplishments in the novella, the novel, drama, poetry, and translation and his dedication to beauty. He stressed Heyse’s stand against the naturalists in defense of idealism in literature.
The Swedish literary historian Karl Warburg also prepared a report in support of Heyse’s candidacy for the Nobel Prize. Like Muncker, he blamed the opposition of the naturalists for the fact that “the old admirer of beauty” had not been nominated earlier. He praised Heyse for his “passionate battle against that which is ugly.” He gave particular significance to Heyse’s novellas and his translations from the Italian and said that he deserved the award because he had striven his entire life “for the ideal in art.”
In his presentation speech Wirsén called Heyse “the most important lyrical poet of contemporary Germany” and praised him as a master of the novella and “the creator of the modern psychological novella.” Wirsén observed that the naturalists had attacked Heyse in the 1890s, but “Now a miracle seems to have changed everything. The honorable veteran . . . has been flooded with honors.” The prize, Wirsén stated, should serve “as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career.” He mentioned in particular Heyse’s early novellas that the members of the awards committee had enjoyed in their youth. The award seems clearly to be a recognition of Heyse’s prolific career and his veneration of beauty.
By 1910, however, Heyse had outlived his reputation. The younger generation of naturalistic authors was highly critical of the Swedish Academy for awarding the prize to him. For more than twenty years they had been criticizing him as out of touch, a “salon poet,” an author of unrealistic novels and novellas who put form and beauty above truth. Despite such attacks, the German middle class continued reading his works; the Nobel Prize probably made little difference to the average reader. Heyse died on 2 April 1914 and was buried, with no religious ceremony, in the Waldfriedhof Cemetery in Munich. Soon after his death and the outbreak of World War I, Heyse was largely forgotten.
The naturalists’ opinion of Heyse prevailed throughout much of the twentieth century. Then in 1984 Georg Olms Verlag began publishing a reprint of his collected works, and since the 1980s there has been a renaissance of interest in Heyse: his significance as a prose author, his works as a reflection of the literary taste of his time, his correspondence with the major authors of the nineteenth century, his role as a mediator of Italian and Spanish literature, and his intriguing status as the representative German author of the nineteenth century.
Most studies of the history of the novella still acknowledge Heyse as one of the major theoreticians of the genre and compilers of collections of novellas, German and foreign. A few of his own novellas can still be enjoyed today. In the twenty-first century, however, it is primarily his translations that are remembered. His translations of Italian and Spanish poetry, set to music by Hugo Wolf, Johannes Brahms, and others, are part of the standard vocal repertoire.
Letters
“Paul Heyse und Heinrich Leuthold: Aus unveröffentlichten Briefen Heyses,” edited by Georg J. Plotke, Das literarische Echo, 16 (1 May 1914): columns 1034-1036;
“Briefe von Paul Heyse und seinen Angehörigen an die Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover,” edited by G. Schmidt, Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel, 81 (1914): 793-797;
Der Briefwechsel von Jakob Burckhardt und Paul Heyse, edited by Erich Petzet (Munich: Lehmann, 1916);
Der Briefwechsel zwischen Paul Heyse und Theodor Storm, 2 volumes, edited by Plotke (Munich: Lehmann, 1917-1918);
Paul Heyse und Gottfried Keller im Briefwechsel, edited by Max Kalbeck (Braunschweig: Westermann, 1919);
“Aus dem Briefwechsel zwischen Paul Heyse und Hermann Kurz,” edited by Hugo Falkenheim, Der schwäbische Bund, 1 (November 1919): 218-229; (December 1919): 346-352;
“Der Briefwechsel von Paul Heyse und Fanny Lewald,” edited by Rudolf Göhler, Deutsche Rundschau, 183 (May 1920): 274-285; (June 1920): 410-441;
Der Briefwechsel von Emanuel Geibel und Paul Heyse, edited by Petzet (Munich: Lehmann, 1922);
“Freundesbriefe an Richard Voß,” edited by Paul Weiglin, Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte, 38 (September 1923): 89-94;
“Briefe von Paul Heyse und Otto und Emma Ribbeck,” edited by Petzet, Euphorion, 27 (1926): 424-462;
“Aus dem Briefwechsel Paul Heyse–Ernst Wichert, 1900-1902,” edited by Paul Wiehert, Deutsche Rundschau, 207 (April/June 1926): 35-44;
Der Briefwechsel von Theodor Fontane und Paul Heyse, 1850-1897, edited by Petzet (Berlin: Weltgeist-Bücher Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1929);
“Der Briefwechsel zwischen Albert Dulk und Paul Heyse,” edited by Ernst Rose, Germanic Review, 4 (January 1929): 1-32; (April 1929): 131-152;
Briefwechsel zwischen Joseph Victor von Scheffel und Paul Heyse, edited by Conrad Höfer (Karlsruhe: Gräff, 1932);
“Briefwechsel von Paul Heyse und Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach,” in Die Lebens- und Weltanschauung der Freifrau Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, by Mechtild Alkemade, Deutsche Quellen, and Studien, volume 15 (Würzburg & Graz: Wächter, 1935), pp. 257-398;
“Sieben Briefe von Paul Heyse und Feodor Löwe, 1859-1862,” edited by Claire Strube Schradieck, PMLA, 52 (March 1937): 261-271;
Monika Walkhoff, Der Briefwechsel zwischen Paul Heyse und Hermann Kurz in den Jahren 1869-1873 aus Anlaβ; der Herausgabe des “Deutschen Novellenschatzes” (Munich: Foto-Druck Frank, 1967);
Theodor Storm-Paul Heyse: Briefwechsel. Kritische Ausgabe, 3 volumes, edited by Clifford Albrecht Bernd (Berlin: Schmidt, 1969-1974);
Der Briefwechsel zwischen Theodor Fontane und Paul Heyse, edited by Gotthard Erler (Berlin & Weimar: Aufbau, 1972);
“Emilie Fontane und Paul Heyse: Brief um Fontane,” edited by Joachim Krueger, Fontane Blätter, 5, no. 3 (1983): 280-286;
“Du hast alles, was mir fehlt . . .”: Gottfried Keller im Briefwechsel mit Paul Heyse, edited by Fridolin Statili (Stafa: Gut, 1990);
Ein Buch der Freundschaft über getrennte Welten hinweg: Die Korrespondenz zwischen Wilhelm Bolin und Paul Heyse, edited by Susanne Frejborg (Frankfurt am Main & New York: Peter Lang, 1992);
Ein Gefühl der Verwandtschaft: Paul Heyses Briefwechsel mit Eduard Mörike, edited by Rainer Hillenbrand (Frankfurt & New York: Peter Lang, 1997);
Paul Heyses Briefe an Wilhelm Petersen: Mit Heyses Briefen an Anna Petersen, Vier Briefen Petersens an Heyse und einigen ergänzenden Schreiben aus dem Familienkreise, edited by Hillenbrand (Frankfurt & New York: Peter Lang, 1998).
Bibliographies
Charles H. Helmetag, “Paul Heyse-Bibliographie (Sekundärliteratur),” Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel, 25 (14 October 1969): 2557-2564;
Werner Martin, Paul Heyse: Eine Bibliographie seiner Werke (Hildesheim: Olms, 1978);
Helmetag, “Paul Heyse-Bibliographie: Sekundärliteratur 1968-1978,” Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel, 26 (28 March 1980): A116-A120;
Rainer Hillenbrand, “Heyse-Bibliographie 1974-1995,” in his Heyses Novellen: Ein literarischer Führer (Frankfurt am Main & New York: Peter Lang, 1998), pp. 963-973.
Biographies
Helene Raff, Paul Heyse (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1910);
Michail Krausnick, Paul Heyse und der Münchener Dichterkreis (Bonn: Bouvier, 1974).
References
E. K. Bennett, “The Novelle as a Literary Genre” and “The Psychological Novelle,” in his A History of the German Novelle, revised and continued by H. M. Waidson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961), pp. 1-19, 206-240;
Georg Brandes, “Paul Heyse,” in his Creative Spirits of the Nineteenth Century, translated by Rasmus R. Anderson (New York: Crowell, 1923), pp. 54-105;
Gerhard Friedrich, “Theodor Fontanes Kritik an Paul Heyse and seinen Dramen,” in Fontane aus heutiger Sicht, edited by Hugo Aust (Munich: Nymphenburger, 1980), pp. 81-117;
Hans Norbert Fügen, “Geibel und Heyse: Elemente und Strukturen des literarischen Systems im 19. Jahrhundert. Dokumentation und Analyse,” in his Dichtung in der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft: Sechs literatursoziologische Studien (Bonn: Bouvier, 1972), pp. 28-50;
Véronique de la Giroday, Die Übersertzertätigkeit des Münchener Dichterkreises (Wiesbaden: Athenaion, 1978);
Charles Hugh Helmetag, “Love and the Social Morality in the Novellen of Paul Heyse,” dissertation, Princeton University, 1968;
Jost Hermand, “Zur Literatur der Gründerzeit” and “Hauke Haien: Kritik oder Ideal des gründerzeitlichen Übermenschen?” in his Von Mainz nach Weimar (1793-1919): Studien zur deutschen Literatur (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1969), pp. 211-249, 250-268;
Rainer Hillenbrand, Heyses Novellen: Ein literarischer Führer (Frankfurt am Main & New York: Peter Lang, 1998);
Annemarie von Ian, “Die zeitgenössische Kritik an Paul Heyse 1850-1914,” dissertation, University of Munich, 1965;
Gabriele Kroes-Tillman, Paul Heyse Italianissimo: Über seine Dichtungen und Nachdichtungen (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1993);
Donald LoCicero, “Paul Heyse: ‘Falkentheorie,’” in his Novellentheorie: The Practicality of the “Theoretical (The Hague: Mouton, 1970), pp. 66-83;
Warren R. Maurer, The Naturalist Image of German Literature (Munich: Fink, 1972);
J. A. Michielsen, “Paul Heyse and Three of His Critics: Theodor Fontane, Gottfried Keller and Theodor Storm,” dissertation, University of Toronto, 1970;
Robert McBurney Mitchell, Heyse and His Predecessors in the Theory of the Novelle (Frankfurt am Main: Baer, 1915);
Sigrid von Moisy, ed., Paul Heyse, Münchner Dichterfürst im bürgerlichen Zeitalter: Ausstellung in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, 23. Januar bis 11. April 1981 (Munich: Beck, 1981);
Boyd Mullan, “From Bavaria to Berlin: Stations in Paul Heyse’s Career as a Patriotic Dramatist,” Euphorion, 95 (2001): 129-165;
Kenneth Negus, “Paul Heyse’s Novellentheorie: A Revaluation,” Germanic Review, 40 (May 1965): 173-191;
Brigitte Schader, “Paul Heyse: ‘Unheilbar,’” in her Schwindsucht–Zur Darstellung einer tödlichen Krankheit in der deutschen Literatur vom poetischen Realhmus bu zur Moderne (Frankfurt am Main & Bern: Peter Lang, 1987), pp. 8-45;
Manfred Schunicht, “Der ‘Falke’ am ‘Wendepunkt’: Zu den Novellentheorien Tiecks und Heyses,” Germanisch-romanische Monatsschrift, new series 10 (1960): 44-56;
Margaret G. Sleeman, “Variations on Spanish Themes: The Spanisches Liederbuch of Emanuel Geibel and Paul Heyse and Its Reflection in the Songs of Hugo Wolf,” Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 18, part 2 (1982): 159-274;
Bernhard Spies, “Ein bürgerlicher Großschriftsteller: Paul Heyses Briefweschel,” in Briefkultur im 19. Jahrhundert, edited by Rainer Baasner (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1999), pp. 207-238;
Martin Swales, The German Novelle (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977);
Christiane Ullmann, “Form and Content of Paul Heyse’s Novelle Andrea Delfin,” Seminar, 12 (May 1976): 109-120;
Roland A. Wolff, “Der Falke am Wendepunkt Revisited: Some Thoughts on Schunicht’s Theory and on the German Novelle in General,” New German Studies, 5 (1977): 157-168.
Papers
The Heyse Archive of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library) includes unpublished early works and fragments, letters, diaries, newspaper reviews, school and university records, works of German and Italian literature from Paul Heyse’s personal library, and a considerable amount of material on his dramas. The Schiller National Museum in Marbach has an extensive collection of letters, poems, drama manuscripts, and other materials.