The Life of Friedrich Schiller: Comprehending an Examination of His Works.

When German literature was still little known in Britain, a young Scottish writer took up the life of one of its greatest figures and, in telling it, began his own career and helped open a nation's eyes to a new world of letters.

What it's about

Thomas Carlyle's biography follows the life of Friedrich Schiller, the German poet, dramatist, historian, and philosopher, from his early struggles and the rebellious energy of his first plays through his historical and philosophical labors to his mature dramatic masterpieces and his friendship with Goethe. Interwoven with the life is Carlyle's examination of Schiller's works, considering the plays, poetry, and thought and assessing their power and significance.

Themes

Carlyle presents Schiller as a model of the earnest, striving artist, devoted to freedom, beauty, and moral seriousness against the constraints of circumstance and ill health. The book reflects Carlyle's own developing ideas about heroism, genius, and the vocation of the writer, and it champions the depth and idealism he found in German literature. Admiration and moral reflection color the whole.

Why it still matters

One of Carlyle's earliest sustained works, the life of Schiller marks an important moment both in his career and in the English reception of German literature, which he did so much to promote. It remains a readable and sympathetic portrait of a major European writer, and a window onto the meeting of two literary cultures. For students of Carlyle it is a formative text.

Who it's for

For readers interested in Schiller, in German literature, and in Carlyle's development as a writer, and for anyone drawn to biographies that treat the life of the mind as a heroic undertaking.