Lindau, PAUL

Lindau, PAUL, man of letters, was born on 3d June 1839 at Magdeburg. He trained himself for journalistic work in Paris, returned to Germany in 1863, and has since edited various journals, including Die Gegenwart and Nord und Süd, both of which he founded. He has laboured in three or four other fields of literary activity. Amongst the earliest fruits of his industry were the pleasantly-written books of travel, Aus Venetien (1864) and Aus Paris (1865), and later Aus der Neuen Welt (1884). His skill as a writer of critical sketches in a satirical and humorous manner is shown in Harmlose Briefe eines deutschen Kleinstädters (1870) and Literarische Rücksichtslosigkeit (1871), and his calibre as a literary critic in studies on Molière (1871) and Alfred de Musset (1877), and in Dramaturgische Blätter (1875–78), Nüchterne Briefe aus Baireuth (1st and 7th ed. 1876), Baireuther Briefe (5th ed. 1883), and Aufsätze (1875). But he is perhaps better known as a writer of plays and novels, the subjects of which are taken almost exclusively from modern life. The former possess the merits of lively dialogue and a fair degree of dramatic power; the most successful was perhaps Maria und Magdalena. A collection of his theatrical pieces was published in three volumes as Theater (1873–81). The novels include Herr und Frau Bewer (7th ed. 1882), Toggenburg (3d ed. 1883), Mayo (5th ed. 1884), a romance cycle, Berlin (1886–90), and Die Brüder (1894). He has written works of travel, and in 1895 became manager of the court theatre at Meiningen.