Thomas Carlyle's biography of Friedrich Schiller traces the German poet and playwright's life and offers a critical examination of his works. Written in Carlyle's distinctive prose, it sets Schiller's development against the literary and intellectual currents of his time. It is worth listening to for a thoughtful nineteenth-century view of Schiller and German letters.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
THOMAS CARLYLE'S COLLECTED WORKS. LIBRARY EDITION. IN THIRTY VOLUMES. VOL. V. LIFE OF FRIEDRICH SCHILLER. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL (LIMITED), 11 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. From a Miniature in the Possession of the Hofdame Fräulein von Kalb, in Berlin, taken while Schiller lived with the Körners in Dresden. London. Chapman & Hall.
THE LIFE OF FRIEDRICH SCHILLER COMPREHENDING AN EXAMINATION OF HIS WORKS. BY THOMAS CARLYLE. Quique pii vates et Phœbo digna locuti. Virgil. [1825.] WITH SUPPLEMENT OF 1872. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL (LIMITED). CONTENTS. PAGE Preface to Second Edition vii PART I. Schiller's Youth. (1759-1784) 1
PART II. From his Settlement at Mannheim to his Settlement at Jena. (1784-1790.) 49 PART III. From his Settlement at Jena to his Death. (1790-1805.) 117 SUPPLEMENT OF 1872. Schiller's Parentage, Boyhood, and Youth 241 APPENDIX I. No. 1. Daniel Schubart 341 2. Letters of Schiller 354 3. Friendship with Goethe 371 4. Death of Gustavus Adolphus 375 APPENDIX II. Goethe's Introduction to German Translation of this Life of Schiller 379 Summary and Index 417 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. [1845.] The excuse for reprinting this somewhat insignificant Book is, that certain parties, of the pirate species, were preparing to reprint it for me. There are books, as there are horses, which a judicious owner, on fair survey of them, might prefer to adjust by at once shooting through the head: but in the case of books, owing to the pirate species, that is not possible. Remains therefore that at least dirty paper and errors of the press be guarded against; that a poor Book, which has still to walk this world, do walk in clean linen, so to speak, and pass its few and evil days with no blotches but its own adhering to
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