THE LIFE OF GUSTAV FREYTAG


By ERNEST F. HENDERSON, PH.D., L.H.D.

Author of _A History of Germany in the Middle Ages; A Short History of
Germany, etc._


It is difficult to assign to Gustav Freytag his exact niche in the
hall of fame, because of his many-sidedness. He wrote one novel of
which the statement has been made by an eminent French critic that no
book in the German language, with the exception of the Bible, has
enjoyed in its day so wide a circulation; he wrote one comedy which
for years was more frequently played than any other on the German
stage; he wrote a series of historical sketches--_Pictures of the
German Past_ he calls them--which hold a unique place in German
literature, being as charming in style as they are sound in
scholarship. Add to these a work on the principles of dramatic
criticism that is referred to with respect by the very latest writers
on the subject, an important biography, a second very successful
novel, and a series of six historical romances that vary in interest,
indeed, but that are a noble monument to his own nation and that,
alone, would have made him famous.

As a novelist Freytag is often compared with Charles Dickens, largely