Penthesilea : A Tragic Drama

Rating:
Summary: no one reviews it?
Review: All Kleist's readers read him in German, so no one reviews this book? And readers who have no German just ignore him? It will be a pity if it is so.

Literature lovers should be reminded that Kleist, along with Aeschylus, Sophocles and Shakespeare, are one of the only four tragic poets, in the purest sense of the word, in Western Literature. And such German writers and poets popular in the English world as Rilke, Brecht and Thomas Mann are dwarfed standing besdie Kleist (By the way, all three of them adored Kleist, not to mention Kafka's and Nietzsche's more well-known admirations towards him).

This edition of "Penthesilea", Kleist's first completed tragedy, is superb; interested readers who have no German should also consult the "Selected Writings" translated by David Constantine; and, though harder to get, "An Abyss Deep Enough: Letters of Heinrich von Kleist with a Selection of Essays and Anectodes" translated by Philip B. Miller. There are also several useful studies of Kleist's works in English.