About this ebook
PREFACE
During his perusal of a number of legends, the author of this little book was pleased to imagine that, in the bulk of the tales which have been handed down to us, not only the art of the churchly fabulist, but also, upon attentive consideration, traces of a more primitive and more profane love of story-telling, or art of fiction, are perceptible.
As the painter is incited by a fragmentary patch of cloud, an outline of a mountain, an etched scrap by some forgotten master, to fill a whole canvas, so the author experienced a desire to reproduce those broken, elusive images; although it must be owned that in the process their faces have often been turned to another quarter of the heavens than that towards which they looked in their extant forms.
The huge mass of material available would have made it possible to spin the book out to very great length; but it could only hope to be granted the modest space which it demands if the innocent pleasantry was kept within very moderate limits.
During his perusal of a number of legends, the author of this little book was pleased to imagine that, in the bulk of the tales which have been handed down to us, not only the art of the churchly fabulist, but also, upon attentive consideration, traces of a more primitive and more profane love of story-telling, or art of fiction, are perceptible.
As the painter is incited by a fragmentary patch of cloud, an outline of a mountain, an etched scrap by some forgotten master, to fill a whole canvas, so the author experienced a desire to reproduce those broken, elusive images; although it must be owned that in the process their faces have often been turned to another quarter of the heavens than that towards which they looked in their extant forms.
The huge mass of material available would have made it possible to spin the book out to very great length; but it could only hope to be granted the modest space which it demands if the innocent pleasantry was kept within very moderate limits.
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About the author
Gottfried Keller (* 19. Juli 1819 in Zürich; † 15. Juli 1890 in Zürich) war ein Schweizer Dichter und Politiker.
Wegen eines Jugendstreiches von der höheren Schulbildung ausgeschlossen, trat er eine Lehre an, um Landschaftsmaler zu werden. Er verbrachte zwei Studienjahre in München, von wo er 1842 mittellos in seine Vaterstadt zurückkehrte. Unter dem Eindruck der politischen Lyrik des Vormärz entdeckte er sein dichterisches Talent. Zur gleichen Zeit beteiligte er sich an der militanten Bewegung, die 1848 zur staatlichen Neuordnung der Schweiz führte.
Wegen eines Jugendstreiches von der höheren Schulbildung ausgeschlossen, trat er eine Lehre an, um Landschaftsmaler zu werden. Er verbrachte zwei Studienjahre in München, von wo er 1842 mittellos in seine Vaterstadt zurückkehrte. Unter dem Eindruck der politischen Lyrik des Vormärz entdeckte er sein dichterisches Talent. Zur gleichen Zeit beteiligte er sich an der militanten Bewegung, die 1848 zur staatlichen Neuordnung der Schweiz führte.
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