Few German writers at the turn of the century evoked as much personal interest and critical acclaim as the Polish-born Stanislaw Przybyszewski. His fame as "der geniale Pole" (the ingenious Pole) spread from Germany to Scandinavia and most eastern European countries. The modernists in Russia acclaimed him as second only to Dostoyevski, and Young Poland and Young Czechoslovakia hailed him as the literary genius of the century. Yet he died forgotten, his books out of print.

Each succeeding generation has found in Przybyszewski's work something of contemporary value. The expressionists regarded him as a precursor; some elements in the works of Thomas Mann and Gottfried Benn are thought to be derived from him; his insight into the human psyche makes him a proto-Freudian. Currently Przybyszewski is perceived as an innovator in the field of the psychological novel and in the use of the stream of consciousness, while his...