Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse

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The German author Paul Johann Ludwig Heyse (1830-1914) is best known for his novellas. Marked by careful construction, nobility and dignity of content, and economy of form, these works reveal his relation to the classical tradition.

Paul Heyse was born in Berlin on March 15, 1830. The son of a professor, he pursued studies leading to a doctorate in philology. During an extended visit to Italy in 1852, he determined to abandon formal scholarship for a career in literature. In 1854 he was summoned to Munich by Maximilian II, king of Bavaria, who granted him a lifetime stipend. His subsequent career as a leader of the Munich Poets' Circle was marked by professional and popular success.

Heyse's half dozen novels avoid the political and sociological and tend to emphasize ethical views and goals. Kinder der Welt (1873) attests to his advocacy of "nature" and individual "freedom" as criteria in opposition to religious dogmatism. Im Paradiese (1875) is anti-Philistine in its ethical orientation. The element of classical balance and restraint and his opposition to the tenets and tactics of naturalism emerge in the novel Merlin (1892).

In his 120 novellas Heyse's imaginative and formalistic gifts are most fully realized. Here, too, his emphasis upon freedom, individuality, and instinct comes to the fore, although instinct is not presented as incompatible with spirituality or a sense of duty. Even the humblest or most unfortunate characters are endowed with dignity and nobility, which can provide a redemptive force if the individual remains "true to himself." L'Arrabbiata (1852) is perhaps his most famous novella.

As coeditor, Heyse published two extensive collections of 19th-century novellas: Deutscher Novellenschatz (24 vols., from 1871) and Neuer deutscher Novellenschatz (24 vols., 1884-1888). In his introduction to the former work he describes his "falcon theory" of the novella, advocating the utmost simplicity and clarity of content and form and urging the necessity for an inward conflict culminating in an abrupt turning point or change, which should be represented by a concrete symbol (as the falcon in a Boccaccio story).

Heyse's 60 carefully constructed dramas and many lyrics lack force, but his translations from the Italian poets are admired. In 1910 Paul Heyse received the Nobel Prize for literature. He died in Munich on April 2, 1914.

Further Reading

Georg Brandes's essay "Paul Heyse, " reprinted in his Creative Spirits of the Nineteenth Century, translated by Rasmus B. Anderson (1923), is an enthusiastic appreciation. A balanced view of Heyse as author and theoretician is in E. K. Bennett, A History of the German Novelle (1934; 2d ed. rev. 1961).

Heyse, Paul (Berlin, 1830-1914, Berlin), son of a notable philologist, was educated at the Friedrich Wilhelm-Gymnasium, Berlin, and at Berlin and Bonn universities. In 1851 he made an extended study tour of Italy, returned to Berlin, and in 1854 was invited to Munich and granted a pension by King Maximilian II. With E. Geibel, his older personal friend, he was the leading figure in the Munich group of poets (see Münchner Dichterkreis). When Geibel's pension was revoked in 1868, Heyse renounced his, though he continued to live in Munich in the summer, migrating to Gardone on Lake Garda each winter.

Heyse published his first story, Jungbrunnen, in 1849, and devoted his life to the writing of verse tragedies, Novellen, and poems. The tragedies begin with Francesca da Rimini (1850) and continue with Meleager (1854), Die Sabinerinnen (1859), Elfride (1877), Graf Königsmarck (1877), and Alkibiades (1880). His plays include the Schauspiele Ludwig der Bayer (1862), Elisabeth Charlotte (1864), Hadrian (1865), Maria Maroni (1865), Hans Lange (1866), Colberg (1868), Die Göttin der Vernunft (1870), Die Weiber von Schorndorf (1881), and Don Juans Ende (1883). In 1884 he was awarded the Schiller Prize.

Heyse wrote well over 100 Novellen, which are little known, with the possible exception of L'Arrabbiata (1855 with others, 1858 separately). His principal collections are Novellen (1855) Neue Novellen (1858), Neue Novellen (1862), Meraner Novellen (1864), Fünf neue No-vellen (1866), Moralische Novellen (1869), Das Ding an sich (1879), Troubadour-Novellen (1882), Unvergeßbare Worte (1883), Himmlische und irdische Liebe (1886), and No-vellen vom Gardasee (1902). With H. Kurz, and later with other help, he published a huge collection of German Novellen (Deutscher Novellenschatz, 24 vols., 1870-6). He is the author of seven novels: Kinder der Welt (3 vols., 1873), Der Roman der Stiftsdame (1887), Merlin (3 vols., 1892), Über allen Gipfeln (1895), Crone Stäudlin (1905), Gegen den Strom (1907), and Die Geburt der Venus (1909).

Only in the field of poetry has Heyse's work survived, chiefly through his great gift for translation and the remarkable compositions of Hugo Wolf: Spani-sches Liederbuch (with Geibel, 1852) and Italienisches Liederbuch (1860). A fluent and easy writer, he devoted himself to an ideal of beauty detached from everyday reality, and his 19th-c. public endorsed his views. The coming of Naturalism (see Naturalismus) and the changing standards of the early 20th c. exposed Heyse's writings as unreal and affected. In 1910 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and ennobled. His correspondence with Storm, ed. C. A. Bernd (3 vols.) appeared 1969-74, with Fontane, ed. G. Erler, in 1972; editions of his works include Gesammelte Werke (38 vols.), 1872-1914, Gesammelte Werke (15 vols.), ed. E. Petzet, 1924, and Werke (2 vols.), ed. B. Knick et al., 1980.

Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse
Portrait of Paul Heyse, by Adolph von Menzel
Born	15 March 1830(1830-03-15) Berlin, Germany
Died	2 April 1914 (aged 84)
Nationality	German
Notable award(s)	Nobel Prize in Literature 1910

Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (15 March 1830 - 2 April 1914) was a distinguished German author. Paul von Heyse was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Heyse, a notable philologist, and Julie Saaling. Saaling, his mother, was the daughter of a prominent Jewish family, a well-to-do court jeweler related to Felix Mendelssohn. He was educated in Berlin and at Bonn, where he studied classical languages. Afterwards, he translated many Italian poets. He also wrote short stories and published several novels, the most famous being Kinder der Welt ("Children of the World", 1873). In Berlin he was member of the poets' society "Tunnel über der Spree", in Munich together with Emanuel Geibel and others in the poets' society "Krokodil" (Crocodile).

He wrote books, poems, and about 60 dramas. The sum of Heyse's many and varied productions has made him a dominant figure among German men of letters. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1910 "as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories". Wirsen, one of the Nobel judges, said 'Germany has not had a greater literary genius since Goethe'. Heyse is the third oldest laureate in literature, after Doris Lessing and Theodor Mommsen.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse

• Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse on Nobelprize.org
• Photo and Short Biography at Timeline of Nobel Winners
• Works by Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse at Project Gutenberg
• In Paradise, by Paul Heyse
• Children of the World, by Paul Heyse

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