Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) was a major figure in German Romanticism, a poet, playwright and novelist who was also an influential art and theatre critic, the editor of Kleist and Novalis, and responsible for bringing out the famous Schegel-Tieck translation of Shakespeare. This book has condensed a mass of material to make a readable but accurate and comprehensive literary biography, the first complete study of Tieck since 1935.

Its aim is to convey, through the study of one man's works, the climate of Romanticism, and to trace its progress from being a movement of aesthetic protest and experiment to one of national awareness. The present book is an attempt to present the material in a form which makes it accessible to all Germanists, and to present Tieck's life and times in such as way as to illuminate a central phase in German and European literary history.

English translations are provided of the German quotations.