July: Kleist returns to Dresden after his release from captivity. He associates with the city’s intellectual and artistic circles and makes the acquaintance of the romantic philosopher and conservative political thinker Adam Müller, with whom he publishes Phöbus, a journal for the arts.
Work on Käthchen of Heilbronn.
First publication of Jeronimo and Josephe.
1808 January: Kleist sends his recently finished Penthesilea to Goethe and receives a critical response.
Parts of Kleist’s works are published in the Phöbus (a fragment of Penthesilea, The Marquise of O—, parts of The Broken Jug, the Guiscard fragment, extracts from Kätchen of Heilbronn and the beginning of Michael Kohlhaas).
March: The first staging of The Broken Jug by Goethe at Weimar is a failure. Kleist strongly resents Goethe for having distorted his play and allegedly even expresses the wish to challenge him in a duel.
July: The full-length Penthesilea is published by Cotta in Tübingen. The Phöbus project gets into financial difficulties.
Kleist works on his political play Die Herrmannsschlacht, which he finishes in December. He hopes that it will stimulate national feelings against foreign (French) rule.
1809 First half of the year: Kleist writes patriotic poems and political essays.
March: Last issue of the Phöbus.
April: Kleist travels with the historian Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann to Prague and Znaim. In Prague he approaches the Austrian resistance party and plans the edition of an anti-Napoleonic journal (Germania). Political essay supporting the Austrian resistance, On the salvation of Austria (Über die Rettung von Österreich).
1810 End of January: Journey to Berlin after a short stay at Frankfurt-am-Main.
March: Four stagings of Kätchen of Heilbronn in Vienna.
In the course of this year Kleist finishes an early version of The Prince of Homburg and works on a second, extended version of Michael Kohlhaas.
September: The first volume of the Tales (Michael Kohlhaas, The Marquise of O—, The Earthquake in Chili) is published by Reimer in Berlin and is presented at the Leipzig book convention.
October–April: Kleist edits Berlin’s first popular daily newspaper, Berliner Abendblätter.
1811 February: Publication of The Broken Jug by Reimer in Berlin.
March: Last issue of the Abendblätter.
May/June: After the failure of the Abendblätter project Kleist’s financial situation becomes increasingly desperate. He appeals to the king for a regular pension, but in vain.
June: Suggests that Reimer publish The Prince of Homburg. Reimer refuses.
August: Publication of the second volume of the Tales (The Betrothal in Santo Domingo, The Beggarwoman of Locarno, The Foundling, St Cecilia or the Power of Music, The Duel).
October: Kleist’s family at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder refuses to lend him further financial support.
November: Kleist and Henriette Vogel, who is suffering from incurable cancer, plan to commit joint suicide.
21 November: On a small hill overlooking the Wannsee, a lake close to Potsdam, Kleist first shoots Henriette Vogel, then turns the gun upon himself.
Further Reading
Editions
Heinrich von Kleist, Brandenburger (1988–1991: Berliner) Ausgabe, ed. Roland Reuß, Peter Staengle (Basel, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1988–).
Heinrich von Kleist, Sämtliche Werke, ed. Helmut Sembdner, 2 vols., 9th edn (Munich, 1993).
Heinrich von Kleist, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, 4 vols., (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1987–97).
General
Brown, Hilda Meldrum, Heinrich von Kleist: The Ambiguity of Art and the Necessity of Form (Oxford, 1998).
Ellis, John, Heinrich von Kleist: Studies in the Character and Meaning of his Writings (Chapel Hill, NC, 1979).
Graham, Ilse, Heinrich von Kleist: Word into Flesh: A Poet’s Quest for the Symbol (Berlin and New York, 1977).
Nobile, Nancy, The School of Days: Heinrich von Kleist and the Traumas of Education (Detroit, MI, 1999).
Schmidt, Jochen, Heinrich von Kleist: Die Dramen und Erzählungen in ihrer Epoche (Darmstadt, 2003).
Stephens, Anthony, Heinrich von Kleist: The Dramas and Stories (Oxford and Providence, RI, 1994).
On the Stories
Allan, Séan, The Stories of Heinrich von Kleist: Fictions of Security (Rochester, 2001).
Dietrick, Linda, Prisons and Idylls: Studies in Heinrich von Kleist’s Fictional World (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1985).
Dyer, Denys, The Stories of Kleist (London, 1977).
Fischer, Bernd, Ironische Metaphysik: Die Erzählungen Heinrich von Kleists (Munich, 1988).
Hinderer, Walter (ed.), Kleists Erzählungen: Interpretationen (Stuttgart, 1998).
Marx, Stefanie, Beispiele des Beispiellosen: Heinrich von Kleists Erzählungen ohne Moral (Würzburg, 1994).
Michael Kohlhaas
Allen, Seán, ‘“Der Herr aber, dessen Leib du begehrst, vergab seinem Feind”: The Problem of Revenge in Kleist’s Michael Kohlhaas’, Modern Languages Review, 92 (1997), 630–42.
Bogdal, Klaus-Michael, Heinrich von Kleist: Michael Kohlhaas (Munich, 1981).
Grathoff, Dirk, ‘Michael Kohlhaas’, in Kleists Erzählungen: Interpretationen, ed. Walter Hinderer (Stuttgart, 1998), 43–66.
The Duel
Demeritt, Linda, ‘The Role of Reason in Kleist’s “Der Zweikampf”’, Colloquia Germanica, 20 (1987), 38–52.
Neumann, Gerhard, ‘Der Zweikampf: Kleist’s “einrückendes” Erzählen’, in Kleists Erzählungen: Interpretationen, ed. Walter Hinderer (Stuttgart, 1998), 216–46.
The Earthquake in Chili
Hamacher, Werner, ‘Das Beben der Darstellung’, in Positionen der Literaturwissenschaft, ed. David Wellberry (Munich, 1985), 149–73.
Oellers, Nobert, ‘Das Erdbeben in Chili’, in Kleists Erzählungen: Interpretationen, ed. Walter Hinderer (Stuttgart, 1998), 85–110.
St Cecilia or the Power of Music
Haase, Donald P., and Freudenberg, Rachel, ‘Power, Truth and Interpretation: The Hermeneutic Act and Kleists “Die Heilige Cäcilie”’, Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift, 60 (1986), 88–103.
Laurs, Axel, ‘Narrative Strategy in Kleist’s “Die Heilige Cäcilie”’, Australasian Universities Modern Languages Association (1983), 220–33.
The Betrothal in Santo Domingo
Brittnacher, Hans, ‘Das Opfer der Anmut: Die schöne Seele und das Erhabene in Kleists Die Verlobung in St. Domingo’, Aurora, 54 (1994), 167–89.
Werlen, Hansjakob, ‘Seduction and Betrayal: Race and Gender in Kleist’s Verlobung in St. Domingo’, Monatshefte für deutschen Unterricht, deutsche Sprache und Literatur, 84 (1992), 459–71.
The Foundling
Newman, Gail M., ‘Family Violence in Heinrich von Kleist’s Der Findling’, Colloquia Germanica, 29 (1996), 287–302.
Ryder, Frank G., ‘Kleist’s “Findling”: Oedipus manqué?’, Modern Languages Notes, 92 (1977), 509–25.
Schröder, Jürgen, ‘Kleists Novelle “Der Findling”: Ein Plädoyer für Nicolo’, Kleistjahrbuch (1985), 109–27.
The Marquise of O—
Cohn, Dorrit, ‘Kleist’s “Marquise von O.” and the Problem of Knowledge’, Monatshefte, 67 (1975), 129–44.
Swales, Erika, ‘The Beleaguered Citadel: A Study of Kleist’s Die Marquise von O…’, Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, 51 (1977), 129–47.
Weiss, Hermann F., ‘Precarious Idylls: The Relationship between Father and Daughter in Heinrich von Kleist’s Die Marquise von O.’, Modern Languages Notes, 91 (1976), 538–42.
* Literally ‘Count Jakob (the) Redbeard’.
Table of Contents
Cover
About the Author
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Introduction
The Marquise of O— and Other Stories
The Earthquake in Chile
The Marquise of O—
Mic
hael Kohlhaas
The Beggarwoman of Lacorno
St Cecilia or The Power of Music
The Betrothal in Santo Domingo
The Foundling
The Duel
Chronology
Further Reading
Footnote
The Duel
Page 287
The Marquise of O and Other Stories Page 34