28 APRIL 1928, Page 19

It is unnecessary to emphasize the importance of nn anthology

by Herr Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the foremost' authority on German literature. Nor can there fie any

doubt that his make Lesebuch (Bremer Presse, Munich,' m 14 marks) will ake a wide- appeal and prove indispensable,. not only to students, but to all lovers of beautiful German.* Nowhere are Herr Von Hofmannsthars ripe scholarship and' critical intelligence more apparent than in these two Volumes; in which he gives us with a curiously clear-sighted detachment an "Attewahl Deutscher Prosastucke" from 1750 to 1850. How clear and helpful is his explanatory preface ; how enthralling the love letter of Hifiderlin—who in greatness stands near to Heine—in which we catch a fleeting glimpse of Diotima ; how unexpected the rapturous apocalyptic fragment of Karoline von Giinderode ! More significant to some, perhaps, will be Kleist's perfect essay on the Marionettes, a gem which deserves to be better known. Schopenhauer is wisely represented by Von dem, was einer ist. Then we have Lassalle, Moltke, Heine, Grimm, Mozart, and more_ than a hundred others, •

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