Napoleon oder Die hundert Tage

Christian Dietrich Grabbe: Napoleon or the Hundred Days. A Drama in Five Acts. Grabbe focuses on the complex interplay between upheaval and restoration, between historical conditions and consequences, during the time from March 1, 1815, when Napoleon returns from Elba, to the Battle of Waterloo on June 18 of the same year. "With Napoleon's end, it was as if the world had come to an end, like a book that has been read." C.D.G. First published: Written in 1829/30, first edition: Frankfurt/M. 1831. Premiere on August 12, 1868, in Vienna. Complete new edition with a biography of the author. Edited by Karl-Maria Guth. Berlin 2013. The text is based on the edition: Christian Dietrich Grabbe: Works and Letters. Historical-Critical Complete Edition in Six Volumes. Edited by the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, edited by Alfred Bergmann. The pagination of the above edition is included in this new edition as a marginal note, line by line. Cover design by Thomas Schultz-Overhage using the image: Joseph Beaume, Napoleon Leaves the Island of Elba (Detail), 1836. Set in Minion Pro, 11 pt. About the author: Born in 1801 as the only child of a prison warden in Detmold, Christian Dietrich Grabbe unsuccessfully offered his drama "Theodora," which has not survived, to the Leipzig publisher Göschen at the age of sixteen. He studies law in Leipzig and Berlin. His attempts to establish himself as an author, actor, or dramaturg in the theater fail, and in 1826 he becomes a military court officer in the Lippe army. The respectable success of his youth plays "Dramatic Poems along with a Treatise on the Shakespeare Mania," published in 1827, encourages him to pursue further literary work. In 1829, his tragedy "Don Juan and Faust" is performed as the only play during the author's lifetime. The widespread rejection by theaters, his painfully felt official duties, and unfortunate personal circumstances shape his further creative output.