Schlegel's notebooks, like those of Coleridge, are complementary to his published writings; they are repositories in which can be traced the growth and continued revision of his ideas. One hundred survived his death, more than half of which have been preserved; of the series of fifteen which deal with literature, none has hitherto been published. Dr Eichner has edited the first three of this series, covering Schlegel's most influential period, the years 1797-1801.
In these pages is to be found the only record of the theory of the Roman which he later proclaimed as the gospel of romantische Poesie, and the original versions of many of his published Fragmente. The ideas later to take shape in the Gespräch uber die Poesie are seen here in their first form. No less than in his published works, Schlegel reveals himself in these notebooks as one of the founders of modern criticism.
The text is given in the original German. The editor, who is Associate Professor of German at Queen's University, Ontario, has provided an introduction and an extensive commentary in English.