“I neither want nor intend to become famous now, but in one hundred years I wish to be read.” Thus presciently asserted Germany's most beloved and celebrated nineteenth-century woman writer in a personal letter dating from 1843. During her lifetime Annette von Droste-Hülshoff achieved modest recognition, first as a relatively obscure regional author, then as a significant and original literary figure. Her true poetic genius was widely recognized only posthumously. The inclusion of her novella
Die Judenbuche[
The Jews' Beech Tree, 1842] in Heyse and Kurz's
Deutscher Novellenschatz[
Treasury of German Novellas, 1876] secured the Westphalian poetess's reputation as a national author, and in the twentieth century Droste became a cultural icon whose likeness was reproduced on the 20-mark…
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Citation: Helfer, Martha. "Annette von Droste-Hülshoff". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 July 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5444, accessed 27 November 2024.]
