Friedrich Holderlin - Poetry, Hyperion, Essays, Letters (7 books)

FRIEDRICH HÖLDERLIN (1770-1843) was a major Romantic lyric poet and an important thinker in the development of German Idealism. He gained little recognition during his lifetime and was almost totally forgotten for nearly 100 years. It was not until the early years of the 20th century that he was rediscovered in Germany and that his reputation as one of the outstanding lyric poets in the German language was established in Europe.

Today he is ranked among the greatest of German poets, especially admired for his uniquely expressive style: like no one before or since, he succeeded in naturalizing the forms of classical Greek verse in the German language. With passionate intensity he strove to reconcile the Christian faith with the religious spirit and beliefs of ancient Greece; he was a prophet of spiritual renewal, of "the return of the gods" -- utterly dedicated to his art, hypersensitive, and therefore exceptionally vulnerable. In the end his mind gave way under the strains and frustrations of his existence.

Hölderlin's work significantly influenced modern poetry and philosophy, including the writings of Nietzsche, Rilke, Heidegger, and Celan.


The following books are in PDF or ePUB format as indicated:

* The Death of Empedocles: A Mourning-Play (SUNY, 2009). Translated by David Farrell Krell. -- PDF

* Essays and Letters (Penguin Classics, 2009). Translated by Jeremy Adler and Charlie Louth. -- ePUB

* Hyperion (Archipelago, 2008). Translated by Ross Benjamin. -- ePUB

* Hyperion and Selected Poems (Continuum, 1990). Bilingual German/English edition. Edited by Eric L. Santner. -- PDF

* Poems of Friedrich Holderlin, 2nd edition (Ithuriel's Spear, 2004). Translated by James Mitchell. -- PDF

* Selected Poems, 2nd edition (Bloodaxe, 1996). Translated by David Constantine. -- PDF

* Selected Poems and Fragments (Penguin Classics, 1998). Translated by Michael Hamburger. -- ePUB