Page:The German Novelists (Volume 1).djvu/9



object of the following publication is to present to the English novel reader a succinct view of some of the more favourite prose fictions current in Germany, such as they have been preserved from age to age, even previous to the invention of printing, down to the present period. It is well known, indeed, that no nation is more attached to this class of popular compositions, both in a poetical and a prosaic form, while no country can boast of writers who have more abundantly produced, or more zealously treasured them up. Some of the least national of these, whose origin it is difficult to decide, have already become familiar to us through the medium of more modern versions, and seem to have naturalized themselves in almost every country, whithersoever they have migrated; of this character, perhaps, are the Adventures of the Travelling Jew, of Fortunatus, Reynard the Fox, the Horned Siegfried; opposed to others of a more national cast like Faustus, Howleglass,