Tieck, Ludwig [key], 1773–1853, German writer. In his youth he led the transition from Sturm und Drang to romanticism, writing with W. H. Wackenroder Phantasien über die Kunst (1799), essays on aesthetics, and Franz Sternbalds Wanderungen (1798), one of the first German romantic novels. His fairy tales and folk tales, notably Der blonde Eckbert (1796) and Volksmärchen (1797), illustrate the romantic refinement of these genres. Kaiser Octavianus (1804), a poetic drama, is an allegory of the rise of Christianity; it exemplifies the romantic glorification of the Middle Ages. Other works include Der Aufruhr in den Cevennen (1826), a fine example of romantic historical fiction, and Phantasus (3 vol., 1812–16; tr. Tales from the Phantasus, 1845), a collection of stories. Tieck also translated Don Quixote and completed, with his daughter Dorothea and her husband, Graf von Baudissin, the translations of Shakespeare begun by A. W. von Schlegel.
See studies by W. J. Lillyman (1979) and R. Paulin (1987).
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