§10. German Romances Dealing with America. XXXI. Non-English Writings I. Vol. 18. Later National Literature, Part III. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
VOLUME XVIII. Later National Literature, Part III.

XXXI. Non-English Writings I.

§ 10. German Romances Dealing with America.

Contemporaneous with travel literature and the ever present Ratgeber, or counsellor for immigrants, there appeared a growing array of romances and literary sketches by German writers who had travelled in America, by some also who had not. The latter were severely critical, as Kürnberger in his Amerikamüde (1855), a title antithetic to Willkomm’s Europamüde (1838), with a plot based in part on the poet Lenau’s unfortunate experiences in America. The former placed a romantic halo about life in the New World, painting the noble red man in the manner of Chateaubriand and Cooper, and portraying types of frontier and pioneer life that compare not unfavourably with what was done in this department by American writers.