i2r? LC 6301 .U5 B7 Copy 1 f r^r' BRIGHT xA '-^\ DfiiversitY and Scheel Erxtensien. // 1 i* GERMAN. 1889. H. H. BOYESEN, Columbia College. Press of J. J. Little & Co, Aster Place, New York. CoPYRIGHT> 1889, By H. H. BOYESEN. Courses in German. LANGUAGE. FIRST YEAR. Dreyspring : The Cumulative Method in German. Dreyspring : Easy Lessons in German. Dreyspring : German Verb Drill. Van der Smissen : Kinder- und Hausmarchen der Ge- briider Grimm. SECOND YEAR. Schiller : Wilhelm Tell (Buchheim's edition). Heine's Prosa (Buchheim's edition). Dr. W. Bernhardt : Deutsche Novelletten Bibliothek. 2 vols. Goethe's Prosa (Hart's edition). Goethe's " Faust " (First Part. Hart's edition. Com- mentary will be found in Boyesen's Goethe and Schiller). The above recommendations are to be interpreted as mere sug- gestions to the student. Personally, I prefer Professor Dreyspring's method to any other with which I am acquainted ; but it is difficult UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL EXTENSION. to decide the conflicting claims of the many excellent grammars and texts which are at the student's disposal. Collar's " Eysenbach's German Lessons " I have found to be an excellent book for begin- ners ; but it will have to be supplemented by some such reader as Prof. Whitney's or Van der Smissen's '' Grimm's Kinder- und Haus- marchen." The course proposed for the second year would require a considerable amount of study for its completion ; but I would recommend that it be adhered to, in the order indicated, without change. LITERATURE. FIRST YEAR. Scherer's " History of German Literature." 2 vols. Dippold : " Great Epics of Mediaeval Germany." Boyesen : " Goethe and Schiller," containing a Com- mentary to " Faust." SECOND YEAR. Freytag: Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit. 5 Bde. Haym, R. : Die Romantische Schule. Schmidt, Julian : Geschichte der deutschen Literatur seit Lessing's Tod. 3 Bde. The course of reading outlined above aims to present during the first year, a general survey of the entire field of German Literature,! GERMAN LITERATURE. 5 and particularly to emphasize the connection of literature with social phenomena. The merit of Scherer's work is that it never loses sight of this connection, and deals with literary monuments as illustrations and expressions of social conditions, whose chief value is frequently historical rather than aesthetic. It is the drama of German civilization, with its progressive development, from act to act, which Scherer traces, with occasional breaks, through ten or eleven centuries of German literature. I have added to this two works dealing with the two most important periods of German intellectual activity, — what some lite- rary historians are fond of calling the first and the second classical period. It is not expected that the student, during the first year, will be competent to read scholarly works in the German language, and I have therefore confined my recommendations, during that year, to works written in English. It is not intended, however, that he should begin the study of German literature until the second year of his study of the language. The course recommended for the second year aims to emphasize further the sociological value of literature ; and moreover to present facilities for a completer and more thorough study of the literature of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century. Freytag's admirable work will be found no less entertaining than instructive. Though not pretending to be a coherent history, it takes up, one by one, the most salient features of German life and character, and in vivid colors depicts the changing panorama of German civilization from the earliest historic period down to recent times. Dr. Julian Schmidt's " Geschichte der deutschen Literatur seit Lessing's Tod " gives, on the whole, the fullest and the most graphic and impartial UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL EXTENSION. account of the great era of German literature which has been justly designated the classical. If, however, any student prefers to substi- tute the last three volumes of Gervinus' " Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung " or Koberstein's " Grundriss der Geschichte der deutschen Nationalliteratur " (edition of 1884, by Bartsch), I have no objec- tion. I am, however, of opinion that Schmidt's work will be found more serviceable. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 029 944 913