SOURCE: “Prose and Poetry: Der arme Spielmann,” in Franz Grillparzer: A Century of Criticism, Camden House, 1995, pp. 116-25.

In the following excerpt, Roe chronicles the critical reaction to Der arme Spielmann.

The exception to the overall history of neglect of Grillparzer's non-dramatic writing is Der arme Spielmann (The Poor Musician), though the critical reception of Grillparzer's one major prose work has followed an uneven course. In 1988 Roy C. Cowen was still able to refer to it as a neglected masterpiece (Bernd 1988), and it has not been uncommon for it to be excluded from general studies of Grillparzer's work such as those by Reich (1894) or Skreb (1976), who choose to see him exclusively as a dramatist. E. K. Bennett, however, in his 1934 study of the German Novelle, claimed it as “without doubt the most perfect of all Grillparzer's works,”¹ and in the last few decades Der arme Spielmann has attracted...