Abschiedsbriefe in Literatur und Kultur des 18. Jahrhunderts

'See, we dream when we speak of death,' Werther writes on his deathbed in his farewell letter to Lotte. As shown in this study, Werther is following an old tradition of final letters that began to take modern form in the 18th century. Drawing on a large number of sources, this volume undertakes a first comprehensive investigation of the complex and diverse role played by farewell letters from the dying in literature and culture. Among the authors considered are Elizabeth Singer Rowe, Dusch, Richardson, Rousseau, Schiller, Sophie von La Roche, and Goethe.


Marie Isabel Schlinzig, University of Oxford, Großbritannien