Leaving the home of his foster mother to begin his working life, young Victor stops to visit his uncle, who long ago sealed himself away from the world, on a island in a lake, high in the Austrian alps. The old man, who has never known love, lives barricaded in a former monastery, surrounded by an atmosphere of death and decay. Portraying the friction between these two characters with keen psychological insight, Stifter's masterful bildungsroman explores conflicting attitudes to life and t...

'Tell me, please - is this a dream?'The night before he leads his troops into battle, the prince of Homburg strips off his uniform and goes sleepwalking. Moonstruck, his mind races with a young man's fantasies - love, ambition and victory. But when the morning comes, a single reckless act of disobediance sets in motion a chain of events that leads inexorable to the one thing he never dreamt would happen; his own death.Heinrich von Kleist is one of the most enigmatic figures i...

One of Germany's greatest writers, Schiller is best known for his influential dramatic works. The Man Who Sees Ghosts, his only novel, was first published in 1789 and proved to be his most popular work, mainly owing to its masterful treatment of the then fashionable theme of the occult. While in Venice, a young prince of Protestant faith becomes embroiled in a diabolical net of political intrigue and religious conspiracy. Fate takes its course and steers relentlessly towards a cli...