A READER FOR ADVANCED CLASSES COMPILED AND ANNOTATED BY A. B. NICHOLS PROFESSOR OF GERMAN IN SIMMONS COLLEGE SECOND EDITION, REVISED Οὐ πολλά ἀλλὰ πολύ NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY PREFACE. GERMAN is a difficult tongue. Teachers of modern languages would, I conceive, agree that the command of vocabulary and idiom which can be acquired in French in three years demands four years in German. In the first two years little more can be accomplished - I am speaking now of reading — than the mastery of narrative prose and of the easier plays of the classic period. To the third year are usually allotted the major works of Lessing, Goethe and Schiller. I would not for a moment underrate the value of these as training in literature. They are stimulating and profitable in the highest degree. But if a student's formal study of German ends here, he is left quite unprepared for the very different task of coping with contemporary literature of a serious sort. When he attempts to read modern biography, history, literary criticism, political and scientific discussions, topics that will chiefly engage his attention if he aims to appropriate the results of German thought and research, he will find himself face to face with a new and difficult task. It is to bridge the gap between the German of Goethe and Schiller and that of the essay, review and editorial of to-day that this selection aims. Where a place can be found for it in the present crowded curriculum is a question for the individual teacher to solve. In many cases, in my opinion, it might wisely supplant the traditional third-year work, in others it might supplement it. In any case I feel sure that there are many teachers who will be glad to avail themselves of the opportunity to introduce their students to contemporary German prose in its various aspects. |