HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Introduction
of Heine's inroads upon English thought and I
lish letters is worth relating now that we are
proaching the centenary of his death. The wave
time have brought to the English-speaking pec
one image of Heine after another, depositing
layer of Heine influence upon another, until tl
emerged the many-dimensional complex perso
ity visible to mid-twentieth century eyes. In sh
ing the rise to dominance of ever new attiti
towards the poet, the conclusion must not be dr;
that older attitudes disappeared but merely
they had lost their novelty and were hence
longer in the center of public discussion.
Great literary personalities come to us not (
bearing the gifts of their own works but also
landed, swathed, and costumed by critical inter
ters, translators, adapters, and biographers. The
human being becomes in time a formula, the c
living individual a legend. Each age mirrors ii
not alone in its symboHc contemporary figures
also in its re-interpretation of the significant fig
of long ago. Each people reveals itself not me
in its own intellectual leaders, chosen or !
appointed, but also in its evaluation of the ii
lectual elite of its neighbors, friends, and foes.
The English legend of Heine, from its origi
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