Hauff

Hauff, WILHELM, German writer, was born at Stuttgart, 29th November 1802, and was educated at Tübingen. He acted for a couple of years as private tutor, and had been editor of the Morgen- blatt for about three-quarters of a year when he died, 18th November 1827. Although only twenty-five at the time of his death, Hauff has left behind him works which have taken a permanent place in German literature; he has even become well known of late years, through several translations and editions of his best books, in Great Britain. This reputation is due to his Märchen or fairytales (1826-28) and his Tales (1828), all alike admirable for their freshness, simplicity, and playful fancy. Two of the latter, Die Bettlerin vom Pont des Arts and Das Bild des Kaisers, may be regarded as his masterpieces. The greatest effort of his playful fancy was, however, the exhilarating Phantasien im Bremen Rathskeller (1827). Some of his poems, of which he only wrote a few, have become volkslieder. All these works were but short; his longest productions were none of them so successful. The romance of Lichtenstein (1826), although popular in Germany, owing to its local fidelity and its being almost the first historical novel written in German in Sir Walter Scott's style, reveals several defects when tested as a work of art. His earliest lengthy work, Memoiren des Satans (1826-27), is an incomplete and immature production, but full of promise as an example of satiric humour. In the same vein Hauff wrote a parody of Claren in Der Mann im Monde (1826), and an earnest satire against him in Kontroverspredigt (1826). His Sämtliche Werke were published by G. Schwab in 5 vols. in 1830 (18th ed. 1882).