Theodor Storm's prose style: a study of the evolution of the literary style and construction of the Novellen, based on the original mss

Abstract

When Theodor Storm laid down his pen for the last time, he looked forward calmly and confidently to the day, when his works would earn that measure of public appreciation which he was sure they deserved. Popular recognition had come to him very slowly; the modest bulk and unpretentious nature of his work had been overlooked; the fact that he was at no time the protagonist of wide national interests and aspirations, but rather the interpreter of quiet German life in a remote corner of the empire, did not make for popularity. But the conscientious workmanship and perfection of art which each new student has discovered in these little tales of the northeastern foreshore of Germany, have given them a permanent place in literature. Storm was not without fame in his own lifetime, but posthumous honours have come to his works far beyond even his expectations. In his dying dreams he had contented himself with a small recess in the temple of remembrance; but in spite of a great and prolonged war which has shaken the Empire to its foundations and changed its estimates of values in literature, the genuinely national note which sounds so clearly from the heart of Storm's North German peasants and artisans has attracted, and continues to attract to his shrine an ever-increasing number of admirers and friends. This fact is vouched for, not only by public recognition in every. sphere, not only by the vastly,- increasing bibliography which has grown round his name, but by the constant demand for new editions of his works and the remarkable sale of single copies of his Novellen.

What is the explanation of this change in the public estimate? Is it not to be found in the fundamental sincerity and purity of artistic effort in all Storm's works? The best literature has been defined as the most perfect expression of the mind of man; and our study of Storm reveals to us his anxious care to give to his expression that truth and beauty which he had experienced in his on mind. The study of Storm is the study of literary style; the fact that matters in his biography is his laborious conquest over words. Thus it was that storm's greatest prose works were written comparatively late in life, long after he had established for ever his fame as a poet. Storm did not learn without prolonged effort to marshal his thoughts in prose; and the history of that effort is in effect the history of his life. Let this, then, be our apology for an excursion into the subject of the evolution of Storm's prose style. The original MSS., which have frequently been consulted to settle the reading of a passage, have not been sufficiently read as an illustrated history of the growth and construction of the wonderful new style which is characteristic of the Novellen, and which makes every fact, connected with their inception and growth, of interest and value.