Ueber Goethes Hermann und Dorothea

A sustained critical study argues for an aesthetic, poetic reading of a celebrated Goethe epic rather than moralizing or political interpretations. It begins with a preface on the proper stance of reader and interpreter, rejecting scholastic and didactic approaches. Subsequent chapters examine the author's choice of subject, the poem's sources and reception, its temporal and geographical setting, and the course of the narrative. The analysis treats individual characters, the social customs and moral sphere depicted, diction and stylistic features, and the poem's versification. Comparative sections relate the work to other German epics, and the volume concludes with annotations and textual notes.