A book that was a sensation when it was published. A literary history that is unique because it is tracing literature back to its tragic origins and answers the question: what makes a man become an artist? Numerous examples from world literature make up this gallery of brilliant minds and their works against the background of their personal tragedies.

An expert in the study of German language and literature, Walter Muschg was originally trained as a psychoanalyst, and it was from this perspective that he gained profound and surprisingly modern insights into the subconscious and mythical nature of literary texts. These insights gave rise to original, often provocative but invariably convincing, literary interpretations. His collection of essays ›The Destruction of German Literature‹ caused a sensation in 1956, as Muschg was the first critic to draw attention to the »burnt-out poets« of expressionism after 1945. Compiled from this as well as other works by Muschg, the volume contains the critic's most important essays on »his« authors Brecht, Döblin, Goethe, Hebel, Kafka, Barlach, Keller, Stifter as well as many others.