Heyse, PAUL JOHANN

Heyse, PAUL JOHANN, German poet, dramatist, and novelist, was born in Berlin on 15th March 1830, and educated at Berlin and Bonn. He was one of the band of writers whom King Max of Bavaria gathered around him in Munich in 1854. Freed from the necessities of earning a livelihood, Heyse has developed an astonishing productiveness. As a writer of novelettes he is an acknowledged master, his work in this department being mostly of the nature of genre-pictures in words. He is not wanting in sly humour, exhibits considerable executive skill and fertility of invention, shows artistic attention to details, and writes in a graceful style; but his work is frequently marred by sensuousness and immoral feeling. He has published more than a score of collections of novelettes under various titles, good specimens of which are contained in Das Buch der Freundschaft (1883-84). His poetic works include narrative poems, such as Urica (1852), and epics, such as Die Braut von Cypern (1856) and Thekla (1858). As a dramatist he has been almost as voluminous a writer as in the domain of novels; but few if any of his dramatic pieces have been unequivocally successful. He has also written a couple of more ambitious novels, Die Kinder der Welt (1873; 7th ed. 1880) and Im Paradiese (1875; 5th ed. 1880), which have been very warmly praised. Nor is his industry yet exhausted; he has translated the poetical works of Giusti (1875), of Leopardi (1874), and of Parini, Monti, and Manzini (1889).