JOSEPH FREIHERR VON EICHENDORFF

1788-1857

Eichendorff’s Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts is one of the delights of German Literature. Like The Vicar of Wakefield, it is an extremely charming text. There simply is no other adjective with which to describe it. From the lively opening to the ‘bourgeois fairy-tale’ ending, it never ceases to entertain the reader with its sparkling vigour and infectious joie de vivre. Das Marmorbild is a darker and a lesser tale, in which the hero, Florio, almost succumbs to pagan sensuality. Yet it is not without merit, and if the first work gives us the smile of sunny days in the springtime of our lives, the second sends us towards the land of dreams, moonlight reflection, and the pull of past beliefs.

Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts / From the Life of a Good-for-Nothing

Das Marmorbild / The Marble Statue

The original of Taugenichts and an old American translation by Mrs. Annis Lee Wister (Leaves from the Life of a Good-for-Nothing. Philadelphia, 1889) can be found, with some charming illustrations, at the University of Virginia’s ‘19^th-Century German Stories’ page: http://www.fln.vcu.edu//menu.html. There are also translations by Charles Godfrey Leland (New York, 1866), Bayard Quincy Morgan (London, 1955), Michael Glenny (London, 1966), Ronald Taylor (London, 1966) and J.G. Nichols (London, 2002), which I have not seen.

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