Page:Masterpieces of German literature volume 18.djvu/404

 RICARDA HUCH

ICARDA HUCH is not a poet of the people, nor for the people, but her writings have gained an evergrowing, readily applauding audience among readers who have feeling for artistic prose and a natural ear for style.

She won her reputation in three different lines: first, as the author of several valuable novels and novel-like prose works; second, as a lyric poetess of great refinement; and third, as the writer of a keen survey of older German Romanticism. Her novels are daring studies of life, and in them symbolistic romanticism and modern realism are blended uniquely. Her lyric poems are remarkable both for grace of form and for wide sweep of thought. Her work on the German Romantic School, through its deep psychologic insight, competes successfully with the best scholarly presentations of this subject. Thus Ricarda Huch combines in a high degree versatility of talent with the original quality of mind which gives to all her works a note of distinction.

The external facts of her life are quickly told. She was born in the city of Brunswick in 1864, and having lost her parents when she was still very young, was mainly educated by her grandmother, a charming woman of high spiritual gifts, to whom the granddaughter lovingly dedicated her first remarkable work, the drama Evoë! (1892). She lived at home until her twenty-third year, when she resolved to get a scholarly training. She went to the university of Zurich, Switzerland, one of the very first European universities admitting women to the study of

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