Perhaps the classic of German Romanticism. Novalis himself believed the Enlightenment to be a catastrophe and championed a return to a Church-centered world to restore a world whose cultural, social, and intellectual unity had been destroyed by the Enlightenment (and the Reformation). Most of this relatively short book is a coming of age story that, ultimately, bored me. I fear that says as much about me as about the book, which has apparently influenced everyone from C.S. Lewis to Hermann Hesse to George MacDonald and Jorge Luis Borges.
It opens with our hero having a very detailed dream which includes the face of his beloved (to come) in the center of a blue flower (the quest for the flower or the flower itself becomes an indelible, common symbol of Romanticism generally; perhaps you’ve heard of Penelope Fitzgerald’s book…it’s about Novalis himself.) Young Heinrich goes to Augsburg to meet his grandfather and is entertained during the journey with tales and stories of varying quality and interest. Once there he meets Klingsohr (based on a historic figure from Parzival who has appeared over and over again in everything from Richard Wagner to Hermann Hesse), with whom he has “deep” conversations about the meaning of poetry. The first part closes with a chapter that has the densest, strangest, most incredibly symbol-laden “fairy tale” that it would probably take a lifetime (or more) to unpack.
Ultimately, just too…poetic, too self-indulgent, too swoony, too idealized to suit my taste (or temperament). But I can also see how it has been enormously influential. ( )

Probably better in the original language. Romanticism doesn't need discourse. ( )

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Novalis-Henri-dOfterdingen--Heinrich-von-Ofterdin...

Too much old-timey poetry for me to be in love with this book ( )

NG-4