Grosse Erzählungen der Weltliteratur

An exciting foray through the history of the art of storytelling based on three dozen stories from 250 years. Numerous authors owe their fame primarily to their stories: Heinrich von Kleist, Edgar Allan Poe, Guy de Maupassant and Anton Chekhov are just a few famous examples. In countries like England, France and Russia, where the novel predominated as a literary form, the narrative was less popular, while in America the short story enjoyed particular popularity. In Germany, narrative prose took a different development. Here, after the death of Goethe, the novel did not come to full fruition until the end of the 19th century, but the narrative experienced a special flowering with authors such as E. T. A. Hoffmann, Joseph von Eichendorff, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff and Eduard Mörike. This tradition has not been broken off in the following century either: from Arthur Schnitzler and Thomas Mann to Stefan Zweig and Anna Seghers to Heinrich Böll and Alfred Andersch. Hanjo Kesting guides us knowledgeably and entertainingly through these famous texts of world literature. He even finds a surprising approach to the so-called classics and awakens the desire to (re-)read them. A real reading pleasure.