Annette von Droste-Hülshoff is regarded as the greatest woman poet of nineteenth-century German literature, and her work has received more critical acclaim and attention than that of any other German woman writer. Her novella "Die Judenbuche" (published in her Letzte Gaben [Final Offerings], 1860; translated as "The Jew's Beech-Tree," 1913) is a highly intriguing crime story whose enigmatic plot and complex narrative structure bewildered generations of scholars and readers. Her many ballads and poems cover a wide range of topics and forms and feature a detailed, almost microscopic depiction of nature as well as a fascination with the uncanny, supernatural, and mysterious side of human nature. The depth of psychological insight displayed in these works goes far beyond the scope of the Biedermeier period and connects her writing to modern literature and consciousness.

Droste-Hülshoff's reputation as a leading figure of German literature was established several decades...