Friedrich Spielhagen's first novel, Problematische Naturen (Problematic Natures, 1861; translated as Problematic Characters, 1869), catapulted him to literary fame. Over the next four decades twenty-one other novels followed, several of which achieved comparable renown. Together they constitute a massive fictional portrayal of the era surrounding German unification in 1871. Their popularity, manifested by abundant serializations, editions, and translations, was augmented by critical acclaim of Spielhagen as the master of the German novel. By the 1880s, however, outpourings of praise were being replaced by sharp attacks from a younger generation of naturalist writers who criticized his novels as ideologically tendentious and aesthetically inept. Such dismissive judgments of Spielhagen's work still prevail, obscuring its literary innovations and its cultural importance in the emergent German nation. As a novelist and literary theorist, Spielhagen significantly influenced the development of German realism. As a fervent democrat, he contributed to the tradition of literary engagement in German...