CISLEITHANIA AUTHOR · DRAMA · CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION
Franz Grillparzer
Also known as: Franz Grillparzer, Grillparzer
Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer (German: [ˌfʁant͡s ˈɡʁɪlˌpaʁt͡sɐ] 15 January 1791 – 21 January 1872) was an Austrian writer who was considered to be the leading Austrian dramatist of the 19th century. His plays were and are frequently performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also wrote the oration for his longtime friend Ludwig van Beethoven's funeral, as well as the epitaph for his friend Franz Schubert. Though he wrote during the period of Romanticism, Grillparzer's poetic language owes far more to the period of Classicism which reigned during his formative years. Committed to the classical ideals of aesthetic beauty and morality, his plots shy away from the realism which developed during his time, preferring instead to use the theater to address spiritual values, which in the words of the dying queen of his Libussa, would only come after the period of Materialism had passed.
Most acclaimed
die Jüdin von Toledo
Esta novela de Lion Feuchtwanger, autor ya consagrado entre los lectores de habla española, es una apasionada historia de amor y violencia, ocurrida en el siglo XII, y que, a través de siglos, ha ocupado la imaginación de los españoles. Narra la pasión que el rey Alfonso VIII de Castilla sintió por la judía Raquel, hecho que registran las crónicas de su biznieto, el rey Alfonso X el Sabio. La acción transcurre en una época todavía en parte sumida en la barbarie, en la que el arrojo de aquellos nobles castellanos, fruto de una fe sin fisuras, y el ansia de matar, junto con su ilimitado orgullo, destruyeron sin remordimiento las maravillosas ciudades y reinos que otros habías creado. Sólo aquel que perciba la irresistible atracción de ese mundo de aventuras podrá entender la historia de Raquel y el rey.
Sappho
Sappho, the earliest and most famous Greek woman poet, sang her songs around 600 BCE on the island of Lesbos. Of the little that survives from the approximately nine papyrus scrolls collected in antiquity, all is translated here: substantial poems, fragments, single words - and, notably, two new poems that came to light in 2014. Also included are two more small fragments from this latest discovery in 2004. Yet the power of Sappho's poetry - her direc style, rich imagery, and passion - is apparent even in these remnants. Diane Rayor's translations of Greek poetry are graceful and poetic, modern in diction yet faithful to the originals. The full range of Sappho's voice is heard in these poems about desire, friendship, rivalry, family, and "passion for the light of life." In the introduction, scholar André Lardinois presents plausible reconstructions of Sappho's life and work, the importance of the recent discovery in understanding the performance of her songs, and the story of how these fragments survived. -- dust jacket.