Background
He was born in 1802 at Schadat, now Lenauheim, Banat, then in Hungary, now Romania. Lenau was brought up by his mother and paternal grandparents after his dissolute father's early death.
He was born in 1802 at Schadat, now Lenauheim, Banat, then in Hungary, now Romania. Lenau was brought up by his mother and paternal grandparents after his dissolute father's early death.
His instability of character was such that he could not complete any of the courses in law, agriculture, and medicine which he took at various times at the Universities of Pressburg, Vienna, and Heidelberg.
When a legacy rendered him financially independent, he devoted himself to literature, securing general recognition as a talented lyric poet after the publication of his collected poems (1832). Wearying of Old World life, he went to America, where he wandered through the wilderness of the frontier without finding rest or satisfaction.
His return to Germany in 1833 marked the beginning of a passionate but unhapy attachment to a married woman, to which even his engagement to another girl (1844) did not put an end. In 1844 his instability culminated in violent insanity, from which he was released by death at Oberdobling, a Vienna suburb, Aug. 22, 1850.
Lenau's lyric poems are among the finest in German. He was a competent violinist, and his appreciative love for music carries over into his verse. His poetry possesses great felicity of form and contains a spiritual intensity expressed with glowing imagination of rich color. A certain brooding melancholy - the natural expression of a life almost continuously unhappy - pervades all his work. In addition to several volumes of verse he wrote two plays, Faust (1836) and Savonarola (1837); and two narrative poems, Don Juan (1851, a fragment posthumously published) and Die Albigenser (1842).
(Nikolaus Lenau, eigentlich Nikolaus Franz Niembsch (seit ...)
( Nikolaus Lenau: Die Albigenser. Freie Dichtungen Editi...)
( Nikolaus Lenau: Don Juan. Dramatische Szenen Edition H...)
His restless spirit longed for change, and he determined to seek peace and freedom in America. The disposition to sentimental melancholy inherited from his mother.
His return to Germany in 1833 marked the beginning of a passionate but unhapy attachment to a married woman, to which even his engagement to another girl (1844) did not put an end.
