Novalis: His Life, Thoughts, and Works

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Literature & Fiction

NOVALIS

History & Criticism

Franklin Classics

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

A gem of German Romanticism, this literary landmark continues to enchant readers with its combination of poetic and fairy tale elements. The young hero of this unfinished experimental novel envisions a blue flower that represents desire, love, and the metaphysical longing for the infinite. He travels the world in pursuit of his dream, discovering that poetry is everywhere for those who can perceive it. Author Friedrich von Hardenberg ― better known as Novalis (1772–1801) ― was a poet and philosopher who worked closely with Friedrich Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck. Novalis's influence extended to Hermann Hesse and Jorge Luis Borges, and the "blue flower" motif that he originated in Henry von Ofterdingen has appeared in the works of C. S. Lewis and George R. R. Martin. This edition features a Life of the Author and an Afterword by Ludwig Tieck.

Henry von Ofterdingen: A Romance (Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels)

Literary

Dover Publications

This volume presents the first complete translation of Fichte Studies, a critique of Fichtean philosophy by the young philosopher-poet Friedrich von Hardenberg. Under the pen-name Novalis, von Hardenberg became the most well-known and beloved of the early German Romantic writers. Those interested in the fate of German philosophy and literature immediately following Kant will find that this collection of notes and aphorisms consists of original contributions on the nature of self-consciousness, the relationship of art to philosophy, and the nature of philosophical inquiry.

Novalis: Fichte Studies (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy)

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Cambridge University Press

Hymns to the Night and Other Selected Writings

Bobbs-Merrill Educational Publishing

Novalis Philosophical Writings

This first scholarly edition in English of the philosophical writings of Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg), the German Romantic poet, philosopher, and mining engineer, includes two collections of fragments published in 1798, Miscellaneous Observations and Faith and Love, the controversial essay Christendom or Europe, and substantial selections from his unpublished notebooks. Novalis: Philosophical Writings is the first extensive scholarly translation in English from the philosophical work of the late eighteenth-century German Romantic writer Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg). His original and innovative thought explores many questions that are current today, such as truth and objectivity, reason and the imagination, language and mind, and revolution and the state. The translation includes two collections of fragments published by Novalis in 1798, Miscellaneous Observations and Faith and Love, and the controversial essay Christendom or Europe. In addition there are substantial selections from his unpublished notebooks, including Logological Fragments, the General Draft for an encyclopedia,the Monologue on language, and the essay on Goethe as scientist. "A reliable, faithful, and readable English translation of Novalis's influential philosophical and aesthetic writings has been a conspicuous desideratum in Anglo-Saxon scholarship on German Romanticism. Stoljar's book fills this gap in every respect and is, therefore, most welcome and timely. The translation is impeccable and reflects the often highly complex original texts most felicitously. Stoljar's introduction is a model of sound and up-to-date critical scholarship: it provides circumspect exposure to Novalis as an independent and imaginative thinker, situates and characterizes the individual texts in the overall context of Novalis's conceptual universe, and abounds in clearly formulated interpretive insights. "In Stoljar's lucid translation, Novalis's writings come across as fascinating and seminal as they are in the German original; the collection is a veritable eye-opener for anyone concerned with the wide-ranging impact of the best of German Romantic thought on subsequent developments in European literature, philosophy, history, science, psychology, music, the visual arts, etc., in other words, across the entire cultural landscape through the nineteenth century to the present." -- Steven Paul Scher, Dartmouth College

Novalis: Philosophical Writings

State University of New York Press

A frank and candid glimpse into the early life of the maturing poet. Friedrich von Hardenberg, who later became known as the poet Novalis, kept a journal between April and July 1797 that captured his moods, thoughts, and observations following the death of his fifteen-year-old fiancée Sophie von Kühn and his dearly loved younger brother Erasmus. The journal’s short, day-to-day entries allow a frank and candid glimpse into the inner life of the maturing poet, and are complemented by selections from Hardenberg’s letters. Taken together, and read in conjunction with the fragments written before, during, and shortly after this period of time, the journal and letters shed light on a process of self-discovery during which Hardenberg became convinced of his poetic vocation and acknowledged this conviction in an act of self-christening, as the poet Novalis. “The Birth of Novalis … the title of which recalls the outworn image, actually dismantles the Novalis legend. This invaluable biographical collection concentrates on the engagement to Sophie von Kühn, from the poet’s meeting with the twelve-year-old to her excruciating death at just fifteen. … The diaries are filled with references to social events, to conversations, meals, walks, and so on. There are also some fairly frank notes on his sexual activity, what Novalis calls ‘the satisfaction of my fantastical desires.’” — The Times Literary Supplement “This book offers, for the very first time, a reliable and lucid translation into English of the most important primary sources pertaining to the biography of the German Romantic poet-philosopher Novalis. Here we glimpse the inner workings of a now legendary event: the transformation of the mining student Friedrich von Hardenberg into the romantic poet Novalis. The idea to gather letters and supporting biographical material from precisely this period and unite them into a single volume is both a masterly and welcome enterprise. It finally allows an English-speaking audience direct access to one of the most fascinating and enduring love relationships in literary history—that of Sophie von Kühn and Friedrich von Hardenberg. Donehower’s insightful introduction and thoroughly readable commentary interspersed between the letters does a great deal to separate the fact from the fiction and myth in Hardenberg’s biography.” — David W. Wood, University of Paris IV, Sorbonne “Making this material available in English is a great service and long overdue. It offers the materials to contextualize Novalis’ other writings, showing how his work responds to his particular biographical context (unavoidable, given the strong mythmaking surrounding Novalis’ personal losses and their fictionalizations).” — Katherine Arens, author of Empire in Decline: Fritz Mauthner’s Critique of Wilhelminian Germany

Birth of Novalis, The: Friedrich von Hardenberg's Journal of 1797, with Selected Letters and Documents (SUNY series, Intersections: Philosophy and Critical Theory)

Hardenberg, Friedrich Von

The first English translation of Novalis’s unfinished notes for a universal science, Das Allgemeine Brouillon.Novalis is best known in history as the poet of early German Romanticism. However, this translation of Das Allgemeine Brouillon, or “Universal Notebook,” finally introduces him to the English-speaking world as an extraordinarily gifted philosopher in his own right and shatters the myth of him as a mere daydreaming and irrational poet. Composed of more than 1,100 notebook entries, this is easily Novalis’s largest theoretical work and certainly one of the most remarkable and audacious undertakings of the “Golden Age” of German philosophy. In it, Novalis reflects on numerous aspects of human culture, including philosophy, poetry, the natural sciences, the fine arts, mathematics, mineralogy, history, and religion, and brings them all together into what he calls a “Romantic Encyclopaedia” or “Scientific Bible.”Novalis’s Romantic Encyclopaedia fully embodies the author’s own personal brand of philosophy, “Magical Idealism.” With meditations on mankind and nature, the possible future development of our faculties of reason, imagination, and the senses, and the unification of the different sciences, these notes contain a veritable treasure trove of richly poetic and philosophic thoughts.

Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia: Das Allgemeine Brouillon (Suny Series, Intersections: Philosophy and Critical Theory)

History

State Univ of New York Pr

A strange, ingenious novel, the most representative work of early German Romanticism! This extraordinary fusion of novel, fairy tale, and poem, published posthumously in 1802, is the most representative work of early German Romanticism. It reflects, in part, events in the life of its author, who is best known for his Hymns to the Night. Young Henry, a medieval poet who seeks the mysterious Blue Flower with the lovely face of the yet unknown Mathilda, sets out on a journey that is interspersed with beautiful tales and exquisite songs. Henry's "education," as he catches first glimpses of the world, is of special interest to students of philosophy as well as literature, for ingeniously involved in literary form is the crux of Fichte's mysticism. Novalis, like Rouseeau, makes an interesting contribution to the "supreme realism" that transcends the ordinary. Henry von Ofterdingen is an important landmark in the history of literature and the most distinguished work of its brilliant and tragic author.
 Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Goethe, Gotz von Berlichingen: A Play (ISBN 9780881335415); Hauptmann, Three Plays [The Weavers, Hannele, and The Beaver Coat] (ISBN 9780881335408); and Plenzdorf, The New Sufferings of Young W. (ISBN 9780881338911).

Henry Von Ofterdingen

Contemporary

UNKNO

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