Little was known about Johann Thomas among German scholars until 1928, when Heinrich Meyer's dissertation, "Der deutsche Schäferroman des 17. Jahrhunderts" (The German Pastoral Novel of the Seventeenth Century) named Thomas's novel, Damon und Lisille (1663), a masterpiece of pastoral literature. Meyer-writing, perhaps, with understandable bias toward the subject of his dissertation-called it "eine grosse und echte Dichtung, nächst dem Simplizissimus wohl die schönste des 17. Jahrhunderts" (A great and genuine piece of literature, next to Simplizissimus probably the most beautiful of the seventeenth century). Although this novel is Thomas's only significant contribution to German literature, he is important as a literary figure because he is among a group of authors who broke away from the influence of the European novel of the time and produced their own works in German. In addition, his novel is perhaps the finest example of a literary work reflecting the...