SOURCE: Thalmann, Marianne. “August William von Schlegel.” In August William von Schlegel, pp. 5-30. Bad Godesberg: Inter Nationes, 1967.

In the following essay, Thalmann details Schlegel's career as an eminent literary critic and scholar in the Europe of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

On April 1st, 1804, Madame de Staël¹ wrote to her friend Albertine Necker de Saussure: “In the whole of this Berlin, who is it that has engaged my interest? The famous Prince Louis? No. A few from among those ‘grands seigneurs’ who abound here? No. A professor, a German professor! … If you are thinking of a flirtation, there is no question of that, and the first look at him would convince you …, but if you are looking for more esprit and originality in literature than anybody else has and as much as you have yourself, then I can guarantee it.”²

We may begin the...