Die Schlange im Wolfspelz

How does language become literature? What is style, what is jargon, and what pitfalls do almost everyone fall into? How must the elementary particles interact for the perfect prose sentence? Michael Maar demonstrates who can write dialogues and who cannot, why Novalis is overrated and Rahel Varnhagen underrated, why Kafka is an alien, and why only Heimito von Doderer comes close to Thomas Mann. After a detour to the atoll of modern lyric poetry, Maar leads to the fertile field of Eros in poetry, clarifying why Bambi is pornography and how an anonymous author reveals themselves through a stylistic fingerprint. In fifty portraits, from Kleist to Kronauer, he unfolds an extremely original history of German literature. Those who close Maar's book, which is learned yet primarily enjoyable, will read differently—and write better—in the future.