Selbstbiographie

The Academy of Sciences in Vienna asked Franz Grillparzer three times to provide more details about the circumstances of his life - three times in vain. And yet he took the invitation as an opportunity to report on "how it came about" in the most extensive prose text he left behind. Grillparzer tells of the beginnings, of his childhood, his parents' home, his enthusiasm for reading, the death of his mother; of his successes and what they made him dislike. Of his existence as a civil servant, which became more repugnant to him every day Of travelling and how he disliked travelling, of his encounters with the Pope and Goethe, of failures and brief moments of happiness.It is strange that the manuscript dates from 1853, when Grillparzer still had almost twenty years to live. And strange, too, that it only goes as far as 1836. Two years later, he withdrew from the public eye and from then on wrote only for posterity.