Lenz (fragment)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Man muß die Menschheit lieben, um in das eigentümliche Wesen jedes einzudringen, es darf einem keiner zu gering, keiner zu häßlich sein, erst dann kann man sie verstehen; das unbedeutendste Gesicht macht einen tiefern Eindruck als die bloße Empfindung des Schönen, und man kann die Gestalten aus sich heraustreten lassen, ohne etwas vom Äußern hinein zu kopieren, wo einem kein Leben, keine Muskeln, kein Puls entgegen schwillt und pocht." --Georg Büchner, Lenz English: "One must love humanity in order to reach out into the unique essence of each individual: no one can be too low or too ugly." |
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Lenz is a novella fragment written by Georg Büchner in Strasbourg in 1836. It is based on the documentary evidence of Jean Frédéric Oberlin's diary. Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, a friend of Goethe, is the subject of the story. In March 1776 he met Goethe in Weimar. Later he suffered from mental disorder and was sent to Oberlin's vicarage in the Steintal. The story is concerned with this last incident. Although left unfinished at the time of Büchner's death in 1837, it has been seen as a precursor to literary modernism. Its influence on later writers has been immense. The story has been adapted for the stage as Jacob Lenz, a 1978 chamber opera by Wolfgang Rihm.
Editions in English
- Lenz. Translated by Michael Hamburger. West Newbury: Frontier Press, 1969.
- Lenz. Translated by Richard Sieburth. Brooklyn: Archipelago Books, 2005. ISBN 0-9749680-2-1.
- Complete Works and Letters, pp. 139-162. Translated by Henry J. Schmidt. New York: Continuum, 1986. ISBN 0-8264-0301-8.
- Complete Plays and Prose, pp. 139–166. Translated by Carl Richard Mueller. New York: Hill and Wang, 1963. ISBN 0-8090-0727-4.
References
- Sieburth, Richard. "Translator's Afterword" and "Notes", in the 2005 Archipelago edition.
See also
