HEINE – RITCHIE ROBERTSON
HEINE
Ritchie Robertson
Paperback, February 2005
£8.99, 128pp, 1 870015 92 4
Heinrich Heine (1797–1856)
is one of Germany's greatest writers. His agile mind and brilliant wit
expressed themselves in lyrical and satirical poetry, travel writing,
fiction, and essays on literature, art, politics, philosophy and history.
He was a biting satirist, and a perceptive commentator on the world around
him. One of his admirers, Friedrich Nietzsche, said of him: ‘he
possessed that divine malice without which perfection, for me, is
unimaginable.'
Heine was conscious of living after two revolutions. The French Revolution
had changed the world forever. Heine experienced its effects when growing
up in a Düsseldorf that formed part of the Napoleonic Empire, and when
spending the latter half of his life in France. The other revolution was
the transformation of German philosophy in the wake of Kant: Heine
explained this revolution wittily and accessibly to the general public,
emphasizing its hidden political significance.
One of the great ambivalences of Heine's life was his attitude to being a
German Jew in the age of partial emancipation. He converted to
Protestantism, but bitterly regretted this decision. In compensation, he
explored the Jewish past and present in an unfinished historical novel and
in many of his poems.
Ritchie
Robertson is Professor of German at Oxford University and Fellow of St
John’s College. He has written extensively on German literature from the
mid-eighteenth century to the present. His books include: Kafka:
Judaism, Politics, and Literature (1988), The 'Jewish Question' in
German Literature, 1749-1939 (1999), (Ed.) The German-Jewish
Dialogue: An Anthology of Literary Texts, 1749-1993, World's
Classics (1999), (Ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Mann
(2002), Kafka: A Very Short Introduction (2004).
“Ritchie Robertson’s book is a brilliant discussion of the tensions
and ambivalences which captured [Heine’s] mind as he grappled with the
greatest themes…”
Michael Foot, The Jewish Quarterly
“If
all [volumes] rise to the standard of Heine in providing revelatory
excitement, the series will indeed be a valuable one.”
Marghanita Laski, Jewish Chronicle
“This is a thoroughly recommendable brief introduction to Heine…it is
difficult to imagine that this task could have been better performed.”
Forum
for Modern Language Studies
“Robertson shares with Heine the talent of rendering complex issues
intelligible.”
Eoin
Bourke
