NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1858.
Charlottenberg, near Heidelberg, 10th October, 1857.
Dear Sir,—It is now about five months since you expressed tome a wish that I might be induced to imbody, in a few pages, my views onthe peculiar interest I attached—as you had been informed by a commonfriend—to the most popular German novel of the age, Gustav Freytag'sSoll und Haben. I confess I was at first startled by your proposal. Itis true that, although I have not the honor of knowing the authorpersonally, his book inspired me with uncommon interest when I read itsoon after its appearance in 1855, and I did not hesitate to recommendtranslation into English, as I had, in London, recommended that of theLife of Perthes, since so successfully translated and edited under yourauspices. I also admit that I thought, and continue to think, theEnglish public at large would the better appreciate, not only themerits, but also the importance of the work, if they were informed ofthe bearing that it has upon the reality of things on the Continent;for, although Soll und Haben is a work altogether of fiction, and notwhat is called a book of tendency, political or social, it exhibits,nevertheless, more strikingly than any other I know, some highlyimportant social facts, which are more generally felt than understood.It reveals a state of the relations of the higher and of the middleclasses of society, in the eastern provinces of Prussia and the adjacentGerman and Slavonic countries, which are evidently connected with ageneral social movement proceeding from irresistible realities, and, inthe main, independent of local circumstances and of political events. Afew explanatory words might certainly assist the English reader inappreciating the truth and impartiality of the picture of realityexhibited in this novel, and thus considerably enhance the enjoyment ofits poetical beauties, which speak for themselves.
At the same time, I thought that many other persons might explain thismuch better than I, who am besides, and have been ever since I leftEngland, exclusively engaged in studies and compositions of a differentcharacter. As, however, you thought the English public would like toread what I might have to say on the subject, and that some observationson the book in general, and on the circumstances alluded to inparticular, would prove a good means of introducing the author and hiswork to your countrymen, I gladly engaged to employ a time of recreationin one of our German baths in writing a few pages on the subject, to beready by the 1st of August. I was the more encouraged to do so when,early in July, you communicated to me the proof-sheets of the firstvolume of a translation, which I found not only to be faithful in aneminent degree, but also to rival successfully the spirited tone andclassical style for which the German original is justly and universallyadmired.
I began, accordingly, on the 15th July, to write the IntroductoryRemarks desired by you, when circumstances occurred over which I had nocontrol, and neither leisure nor strength could be found for a literarycomposition.
Now that I have regained both, I have thought it advisable