The New Student's Reference Work/Auerbach, Berthold

Auerbach, Berthold, German novelist, was born of humble Jewish parents at Nordstetten, in the Black Forest, Germany, February 28, 1812, and died at Cannes, France, February 8, 1882. After passing through the universities and getting into trouble with the authorities for participation in the Burschenschaft, he, under the influence of Spinoza's teaching, renounced Judaism and gave himself to literature. He published a Life of Spinoza and one (unacknowledged) on Frederick the Great, but made no special success until 1843, when the first of his now famous Black Forest Village Stories appeared, followed at some interval by Little Barefoot, Joseph in the Snow, Edelweiss, The Villa on the Rhine and by On the Heights—the latter two being, with his sketches of the Black Forest, his most representative work. His subsequent work included further novels, Brigitta, Aloys Watfried and a later series of village stories of the Black Forest, with some admirable delineations of peasant life and character.