Product Description
TEXT PRISTINE, UNMARKED - 124 pages; 173 items catalogued, including paintings of Heine, several of his letters, rare editions of some of his works, and much more. Text in German. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

One of the greatest German poets in a nice edition
Heine has been sadly neglected over the years in favor of more "modern" poets Holderlin and Rilke, even though in many ways Heine is as modern as either. He may be the greatest German prose stylist (as Nietszche thought), and his poetry though very lyrical is never banal or lacking in profundity.This edition in Continuum's German series is excellent, with a sampling of Heine's broad poetic output - with, of course, some omissions, most notably 'Songs of Creation' and 'Morphine.'Also included are Heine's unique satires of travelogue, 'The Harz Journey' and 'Ideas - Book Le Grand,' which consist of poetic interludes, many comic episodes, but also some truly beautiful passages concerning the nature of human existence. Finally, one of Heine's most masterful poems, the epic 'Germany: A Winter's Tale', is also included, rounding out this well-selected anthology of one of the essential German - and world - writers.

The last romantic
Heinrich Heine is one of the most lovable writers in European literature. A German of Jewish origin who lived from 1797 to 1856, he regarded himself as the last romantic writer. That shows in his poetry: Very often they begin like usual romantic poems, describing a woman watching the sunset by the seaside for example; but then Heine comes up with a bitterly ironic twist, telling the said lady not to worry as there is nothing unusual about the sunset, the sun always disappears over there and comes back from the other side... Heine is passionately in love with romanticism, Germany and Judaism, but that doesn't keep him from seeing the objects of his love as they really are, he manages to be enchanted by illusion and disillusioned at the same time. That's what makes him such fun to read. His work is somewhat uneven (so it's best to start with a selection like this one), but I always felt that he is the kind of person I would love to be my friend. Heine is never boring. - Apart from that he is second only to Goethe among the best of German poets. ... Read more

Book Description
EVERYMAN'S POETRY LIBRARY: This new series of the world'sgreatest poetry features the hallmarks of Everyman Classics: top-qualityproduction and reader-friendly design along with helpful notes andcritiques. Each edition is also a great value, especially for thosereaders beginning to explore the work of this remarkable poet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A romantic with a biting sarcasm and cynicism that's funny
I first read Heine more than 20 years ago in a hard bound edition translated by Louis Untermeyer and with some old-fashioned drawings. I found the poems to be really very memorable - they are usually short andcan be terribly sweet and very romantic, but the inevitable venom ofcynicism and sarcasm at the end of each are extremely funny and very wise. There are writers which are good only for fusty old university professors -such as Milton and James Joyce - and there are those who are good foreverybody including fusty old professors.Heine is of the secondvariety.

I speak no German and am just a casual poetry reader.But Ifind the translations in this edition have the same ring as the old versionI read ages ago.It therefore tells me, who cannot judge the capability ofany of the translators, that somehow Heine is consistently translatable andwould require a real bad translator to be mangled.

This particular book(ISBN 0-460-87865-4) has a brief and informative introduction by T. J.Reed, setting out the biographical, cultural, and historical times of thepoet.It has a 10-page chronology of his life and times.It has NO indexof titles and first lines, nor has it any scholarly footnotes explainingvariants and allusions and other stuffs that are useful only for those whopretend not to live in musty libraries.In other words, the book'saccessories are designed to provide only just enough information toincrease your understanding and enjoyment of the real meat inside. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Last Days of Heine
This is an absolutely great book and essential reading for anyone who loves Heinrich Heine--or would like to get to know who this legendary poet and wit really was.Above all, Pawel's wonderful work demonstrates all the ways in which the great man's spirit managed to overcome the terrible adversities with which he was forced to live. ... Read more

Book Description
This comprehensive study of the nineteenth-century German poet Heinrich Heine is the first to be published in English for many years. Anthony Phelan examines the complete range of Heine's work, from the early poetry and 'Pictures of Travel' to the last poems, including personal polemic and journalism. Phelan provides original and detailed readings of Heine's major poetry and throws new light on his virtuoso political performances that have too often been neglected by critics. Through his critical relationship with Romanticism, Heine confronted the problem of modernity in startlingly original ways that still speak to the concerns of post-modern readers. Phelan highlights the importance of Heine for the critical understanding of modern literature, and in particular the responses to Heine's work by Adorno, Kraus and Benjamin. Heine emerges as a figure of immense European significance, whose writings now need to be seen as a major contribution to the articulation of modernity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The greatest lyric poet in German
Heine wrote some of the most beautiful and popular lyric poetry the German language has ever known.
Like the Russian of Pushkin, the German of Goethe it loses too much in translation for the English language reader to truly know it and possess it.
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Book Description
As the most prominent German-Jewish Romantic writer, Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) became a focal point for much of the tension generated by the Jewish assimilation to German culture in a time marked by a growing emphasis on the shared ancestry of the German Volk. As both an ingenious composer of Romantic verse and the originator of modernist German prose, he defied nationalist-Romantic concepts of creative genius that grounded German greatness in an idealist tradition of Dichter und Denker. And as a brash, often reckless champion of freedom and social justice, he challenged not only the reactionary ruling powers of Restoration Germany but also the incipient nationalist ideology that would have fateful consequences for the new Germany--consequences he often portended with a prophetic vision born of his own experience. Reaching to the heart of the `German question,' the controversies surrounding Heine have been as intense since his death as they were in his own lifetime, often serving as an acid test for important questions of national and social consciousness. This new volume of essays by scholars from Germany, Britain, Canada, and the United States offers new critical insights on key recurring issues in his work: the symbiosis of German and Jewish culture; emerging nationalism among the European peoples; critical views of Romanticism and modern philosophy; European culture on the threshold to modernity; irony, wit, and self-critique as requisite elements of a modern aesthetic; changing views on teleology and the dialectics of history; and final thoughts and reconsiderations from his last, prolonged years in a sickbed. Contributors: Michael Perraudin, Paul Peters, Roger F. Cook, Willi Goetschel, Gerhard Höhn, Paul Reitter, Robert C. Holub, Jeffrey Grossman, Anthony Phelan, Joseph A. Kruse, and George F. Peters. Roger F. Cook is professor of German at the University of Missouri, Columbia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Prose translation of lyrical poetry does not travel
This edition of Heine 's poems has an excellent introduction and a very clear and understandable prose translation by Peter Branscombe.His lyrical brillance made him the most beloved German poet after Goethe. This work provides a clear introduction to what Heine's poetry is about , contains a wide selection from different periods and kinds of verse. However it is impossible for the English- only reader to really have the full feeling of the poems, or in fact to sense their greatness. Poetry is by and large in the language it is written in. Some can be translated as Shakespeare is in Russian and German , but some do not travel.
A small sample " Spring is serious, its dreams are sad, every flower seems moved by pain, secret melancholy quivers in the nightingale's song.
Oh do not smile, beloved beauty, in that friendly, cheerful manner, do not smile! Oh, I'd rather you cried, I so love kissing tears from your face. ... Read more