ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Five Famous Novellas of German Literature

This anthology contains five of the most famous novellas in German literature.

In Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into an insect.

In Immensee, T. Storm describes an unfulfilled childhood love.

In Clothes Make the Man, G. Keller elevates a tailor to a count.

Goethe’s Novella features a princess and a music-loving lion.

In Stifter’s Brigitta, a young, unattractive woman begins to live a self-determined life.

THE AUTHOR

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary, in 1883, and he died of tuberculosis in Austria in 1924.

He came from a Jewish family and was part of the German minority in Prague.

His works often address self-doubt and absurd, confusing, and frightening situations.

He wrote several novels, including The Trial, as well as numerous short stories. His best-known work is the 1912 novella The Metamorphosis.

Theodor Storm

Storm was born in Husum, northern Germany, in 1817 and died there in 1888. A lawyer and judge by trade, he wrote poems, stories, and novellas.

Although he is sometimes referred to as the “last Romantic,” he was also a central figure of literary realism.
His novellas Immensee and The Rider on the White Horse are particularly well known.

Gottfried Keller

Keller was born in Zurich in 1819 and died in the same city in 1890. The Swiss author became one of the most important realist writers.

He wrote political poetry and several novels, including Green Henry, as well as novellas.

Ten of his novellas, including Clothes Make the Man and Romeo and Juliet in the Village, are set in the fictional Swiss village of Seldwyla. These novellas combine humor, irony, and tragedy.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Goethe, one of the most famous Germans of all time, was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1749 and died in the Duchy of Weimar in 1832.

A universal genius, he was a lawyer, politician, naturalist, painter, and, above all, a poet and writer who experienced and shaped various literary epochs, including the Storm and Stress period, the Enlightenment, Weimar Classicism, Romanticism, and the beginning of Modernism.

His world-famous works include Faust, The Sorrows of Young Werther, and Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, as well as countless poems. Goethe also wrote the first German novella (Novelle) with precisely this title: Novelle.

Adalbert Stifter

The Austrian writer was born in Bohemia in 1805 and died in Linz, Austria, in 1868.

He studied law, mathematics, and the natural sciences. Although he worked as a tutor for aristocratic families in Vienna, he held liberal views.

Stifter wrote poetry, novels, and novellas, including Rock Crystal and Brigitta, in which he artistically describes nature.

His works often deal with the search for beauty and ethical greatness. Evil and tragedy can lurk beneath the calm surface of his narratives.

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