Lessing's Nathan the Wise and the Critics: 1779-1991 (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture)

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) is the major figure of the German Enlightenment, comparable in stature to Voltaire in France and Johnson in England. His ideas and work were groundbreaking: he introduced Shakespeare into German literature, was an impassioned spokesman for the emancipation of the Jews, and his literary criticsm and dramas are a significant contribution to world literature. Despite Lessing's efforts to write clearly, he has been interpreted in many different ways by his critics. On the one hand, he has been praised as a pioneer of German literature, of style, of tolerance and of the bourgeois tragedy. Yet his poetic talent has been questioned by some, and his philosophical and religious beliefs attacked. Eckardt's "Lessing's 'Nathan the Wise' and the Critics: 1779-1991" offers a synopsis of the best Lessing criticism (and some of the most wrong-headed!) The special focus is on his famous play about religious tolerance, "Nathan the Wise" (1779). The study treats the critical opinions of such prominent critics as Herder, F. Schlegel, Schiller, Heine, Gervinus, Eichendorff, Lassalle, Wilhelm Scherer, Dilthey, Mehring, Thomas Mann, H. Seeba, and H. Politzer among others.