From the outset of his brief literary career Christian Dietrich Grabbe believed that he was writing not for his own time but for the future. And indeed, the despair, the often nihilistic attitude toward life, and the radical dissatisfaction with society that pervade his dramatic oeuvre ran counter to the idealistic trend of the day and, not surprisingly, met with little contemporary approval. Consequently, Grabbe was a complete literary and social outsider; plagued by constant trouble and disappointment, he witnessed the staging of only one of his plays, had difficulty in finding publishers for his works, and never found acceptance in any of the leading literary circles. Not until half a century after his death--after Germany had endured an unsuccessful revolution, the rise of industry with its attendant social and political problems, and a subsequent turn away from idealism--was Grabbe "discovered" by a new breed of socially, politically...