Background
Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was born on March 20, 1770, in Lauffen am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg. He was the first child of Johanna Christiana Heyn and Heinrich Friedrich Hölderlin.
(Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) is now recognized as one ...)
Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) is now recognized as one of Europes supreme poets. He first found his true voice in the epigrams and odes he wrote when transfigured by his love for the wife of a rich banker. He later embarked on an extraordinarily ambitious sequence of hymns exploring cosmology and history, from mythological times to the discovery of America and his own era. The Canticles of Night, by contrast, include enigmatic fragments in an unprecedented style, which anticipates the Symbolists and Surrealists. Together the works collected here show Hölderlins use of Classical and Christian imagery and his exploration of cosmology and history in an attempt to find meaning in an uncertain world.
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(Michael Hamburger has been translating the poetry of Frie...)
Michael Hamburger has been translating the poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) for over half a century. This lifelong preoccupation culminates in this fourth bilingual edition, incorporating revisions, new translations and other supplementary material. It is the classic English edition of Hölderlin's poetry for our age.
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( The description for this book, Hymns and Fragments, wil...)
The description for this book, Hymns and Fragments, will be forthcoming.
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(On the eve of his final odes and hymns, Friedrich Hölderl...)
On the eve of his final odes and hymns, Friedrich Hölderlin composed three versions of a dramatic poem on the suicide of the early Greek thinker, Empedocles of Acragas. This book offers the first complete translation of the three versions, along with translations of Hölderlin's essays on the theory of tragedy. David Farrell Krell gives readers a brief chronology of Hölderlin's life, an introduction to the life and thought of Empedocles--including Hölderlin's Empedocles--detailed explanatory notes, and an analysis of the play and the theoretical essays, allowing for a full appreciation of this classic of world literature and philosophy.
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(Michael Hamburger's selection of the poetry of Friedrich ...)
Michael Hamburger's selection of the poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) concentrates on his most mature work, the poetry of his middle years written between 1797 and 1803, and also includes a selection of the poems of his so-called madness written from 1805 onwards.
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(Friedrich Hölderlin emerged in the early 20th century as ...)
Friedrich Hölderlin emerged in the early 20th century as one of the key figures of modern European literature. This comprehensive selection of over 80 of his odes, hexameters, and elegies is taken from the important early period of his mature worka time in which we encounter the poet open to nature and love with a rare vulnerability. The translations in Odes and Elegies, including poems never before available in English, render forcefully and directly the deep longing and heartbreak of Hölderlins poetic world; their open, pathos-filled rhythm and disarming clarity present Hölderlins powerful work as distinctive English poems. A bilingual edition, this book also includes informative annotations and translations of drafts and revisions that give deep insight into Hölderlins craft and process, shining new light on the unique poetic voice that marks Hölderlins achievement and continuing influence on poetry and philosophy today.
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(Hyperion is a novel of stirring lyricism, philosophical s...)
Hyperion is a novel of stirring lyricism, philosophical sublimity, and enduring influence. It stands among Hölderlins most extraordinary achievements. A Greek hermit recounts the pivotal phases of his life, from his discovery of the vanished glory of antiquity, through his encounter with his beloved Diotima, who embodies his goal of merging with "the All of nature," to his participation in a Greek uprising against Ottoman Turkish tyranny. Hölderlins sole novel has been celebrated for its musicality, the power of its cadences and tones to express a constant oscillation between extremes of grief and joy. Though Hölderlins genius was not widely recognized during his lifetime, he has come to be regarded as one of the most significant and unique poets in the German language.
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(Further solidifying Hölderlins place in history, this th...)
Further solidifying Hölderlins place in history, this thorough collection of poetry ranges from the odes of his developmental period to the majestic hymns and strangely prophetic modern compositions created in his later years. Considered one of the founders of European romanticism, Hölderlin had a mere 10 years to develop his distinctive style before falling prey to a debilitating mental illness, whose resultant works are the heartbreakingly sweet and melancholy pieces of the Späteste Gedichte (Last Poems). Each poem is presented in both its original German and a new English translation, while an illuminating introduction explores Hölderlins significance in the realm of literature as well as the tumultuous world in which he lived.
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(The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centu...)
The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 04 By Hölderlin, Friedrich,
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Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was born on March 20, 1770, in Lauffen am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg. He was the first child of Johanna Christiana Heyn and Heinrich Friedrich Hölderlin.
After his father's death the family moved to Nürtingen in Württemberg, where Friedrich Hölderlin spent his childhood. In 1784 he went away to school at Denkendorf and later at Maulbronn. In 1788 he entered the Lutheran Seminary at Tübingen to prepare for the ministry. However, his attention soon turned to philosophy and poetry. He at first wrote verses in the style of local Swabian poets and the older poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. He later began a series of philosophical hymns under the influence of Friedrich von Schiller.
Friedrich Hölderlin soon met Schiller himself, who helped him get a position as private tutor after leaving the seminary in 1794. After several months as tutor, he went to Jena, where he studied the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and was introduced to the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Meanwhile, he continued to write poetry and worked on a novel, Hyperion, which he had begun while still in Tübingen.
In 1796 Hölderlin obtained his second position as tutor, with the family of the banker Gontard in Frankfurt am Main. But he was forced to resign in 1798.
Hölderlin then moved to Homburg, near Frankfurt, where he devoted himself to literary work. His poetry began to show more spontaneity of feeling and a greater richness of natural detail. He also wrote theoretical essays on poetic form and three versions of an uncompleted tragedy, Empedokles, about a Greek philosopher and religious prophet who is rejected by society and by his gods and who decides to commit suicide by jumping into a volcano. In 1799 Hölderlin finished Hyperion. In its final form the novel tells of a young Greek who, inspired by the same religious and philosophical ideals as Hölderlin himself, falls in love with a girl, Diotima, and later joins a Greek war of independence against the Turks. The revolt fails, and Diotima dies. In the end, Hyperion can only reconcile himself with the powers he feels are present in the natural world.
After leaving Homburg, Hölderlin lived for a while with friends in Stuttgart. About this time he perfected the style of his elegiac poetry. His most famous elegy, Brot und Wein (Bread and Wine), commemorates the religious happiness of the ancient Greek world and concludes with a decision for the poet to commit himself as a priest of Dionysus, who is here identified with Christ.
In 1801 Hölderlin began to develop his final religious vision in irregular hymns modeled after the Greek poet Pindar. One of the greatest of these, Der Rhein, turns from a meditation on the course of the Rhine to speculation on the reconciliation of mankind with all the gods ever worshiped.
In 1802 Hölderlin received his last appointment as tutor with a German family in Bordeaux, France. While there he suffered a mental illness and later returned home. After partial recovery he wrote the hymn Patmos, but for the next 2 years he suffered from occasional recurrences of insanity. After attempts at rehabilitation, Hölderlin was committed to an asylum and finally, in 1808, to the care of a carpenter in Tübingen. His condition remained virtually unchanged until his death on June 7, 1843.
Friedrich Holderlin was amongst the most renowned poet, author and philosophers of the early German romanticism era. Mostly known to the world by his pseudonym of Novalis, Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg gave a deep insight of all subjects and made significant contributions in the field of aesthetics and philosophy of art in his life.
(Michael Hamburger's selection of the poetry of Friedrich ...)
(Further solidifying Hölderlins place in history, this th...)
(On the eve of his final odes and hymns, Friedrich Hölderl...)
(Friedrich Hölderlin emerged in the early 20th century as ...)
(Michael Hamburger has been translating the poetry of Frie...)
(The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centu...)
(Hyperion is a novel of stirring lyricism, philosophical s...)
(Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) is now recognized as one ...)
( The description for this book, Hymns and Fragments, wil...)
Quotations:
What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it heaven.
You have a head and a heart? Reveal only one of them, I say; If you reveal both at once, doubly they'll damn you, for both.
But where the danger is, also grows the saving power.
In 1794, Friedrich Hölderlin first met Sophie von Kühn and fell in love with her. The following year in March, they were formally engaged to marry. Tragedy struck the life of the much-in-love couple as Sophie, who was suffering from tuberculosis, breathed her last in March 1979. He was flabbergasted and went into a state of mourning and suffering.
Recovering from his loss, he got engaged to Julie von Charpentier in December 1798. She was the daughter of Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Toussaint von Charpentier, a professor in Freiberg. But in August 1799, he was struck with tuberculosis.
Heinrich Friedrich Hölderlin was an avid follower of pietism and a member of the Moravian (Herrnhuter) Church.
Johann Gok was the burgomaster of Nürtingen.
