Two generations of German and Swiss writers born between 1853 and 1890 whose literary activity spanned both world wars are treated in this two-volume set. All had their first significant prose works first published between 1885 and 1913.No writers were excluded because of philosophical or political conviction or unsavory personal associations. Thus, readers are exposed to figures who appear in virtually every literary history but also unjustly neglected writers who may have been "discovered" only in recent years.The volumes include an appendix: "Historical and Cultural Premises of German Fiction" as well as essays entitled "Writers and Politics: 1871-1918," "Germanophilism," "The Novel of Impressionism," "The Twenties and Berlin," "The Conversion of an Unpolitical Man," and "The Making of a People." Also included is a checklist for further reading.
38 entries include: Rudolf G. Binding, Alfred Doblin, Paul Ernst, Gerhart Hauptmann, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann, Jakob Wassermann, Arnold Zweig.