There is no better barometer of literary life in nineteenth-century Germany than Hermann von Pückler-Muskau. His success as a writer and his far-flung correspondence make him a unique gauge of aesthetic, cultural, and political trends in the years between the empires of Napoleon and Otto von Bismarck. Born a count and later raised to the rank of prince, he hardly seemed destined to write incisively on social revolution, national upheaval, liberal economics, and new technology. In his travel books, however, he observed such changes with a keen narrative eye not only in Europe but also in Africa and the Middle East. Many other writers strongly supported or rejected him, reactions that shed critical light on German literature during his lifetime. His odd mix of progressive views and traditional loyalties often led him to outlandish conclusions, but his spirited accounts of himself and his surroundings earned him...