Book description
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.
