August Wilhelm von Schlegel - Life and work, Evaluation, Selected works

Poet and critic, born in Hanover, NC Germany, the brother of Friedrich von Schlegel. He studied theology at Göttingen, but soon turned to literature, settling in Jena, where he became professor of literature and fine art (1798). He then lectured at Berlin (1801–4), and from 1818 until his death was professor of literature at Bonn. He is famous for his translations of Shakespeare and other authors, and for founding Sanskrit studies in Germany. He was a leading figure of the Romantic movement.

August Wilhelm (later: von) Schlegel (September 8, 1767 – May 12, 1845) was a German poet, translator, critic, and leader of German Romanticism.

Life and work

Schlegel was born at Hanover, where his father, Johann Adolf Schlegel (1721-1793), was a Lutheran pastor.

At this time the two brothers were remarkable for the vigour and freshness of their ideas, and commanded respect as the leaders of the new Romantic criticism. In 1802 Schlegel went to Berlin, where he delivered lectures on art and literature;

In 1807 he attracted much attention in France by an essay in the French language, Comparaison entre la Phèdre de Racine et celle d'Euripide, in which he attacked French classicism from the standpoint of the Romantic school. His lectures on dramatic art and literature (Über dramatische Kunst und Literatur, 1809-1811), which have been translated into most European languages, were delivered at Vienna in 1808. Meanwhile, after a divorce from his wife Karoline, in 1804, he travelled in France, Germany, Italy and other countries with Madame de Staël, who owed to him many of the ideas which she embodied in her work, De l'Allemagne.

In 1813 he acted as secretary of the crown prince of Sweden, through whose influence the right of his family to noble rank was revived. Schlegel was made a professor of literature at the university of Bonn in 1818, and during the remainder of his life occupied himself chiefly with oriental studies, although he continued to lecture on art and literature, and in 1828 he issued two volumes of critical writings (Kritische Schriften).

After the death of Madame de Staël Schlegel married (1818) a daughter of Professor Paulus of Heidelberg;

He died at Bonn in 1845.

Evaluation

As an original poet Schlegel is unimportant, but as a poetical translator he has rarely been excelled, and in criticism he put into practice the Romantic principle that a critic's first duty is not to judge from the standpoint of superiority, but to understand and to characterize a work of art.

Selected works

Please expand this section.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at Requests for expansion.
Please remove this message once the section has been expanded.

Ion (1803) Poetische Werke (1811) Bhagavad Gita (1823, Latin translation) Kritische Schriften (1828, critical works) Sämtliche Werke (1846-1848) Œuvres écrites en francais (1846) Opuscula Latsne scripta (1848)

Letters

Ludwig Tieck und die Brüder Schlegel.