A Companion to the Works of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (review)

Abstract

Barbara Fischer and Thomas C. Fox, eds., A Companion to the Works of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2005. xviii +410 pp. Even if probably would have preferred a critical guide rather than a companion, he would not have been disappointed by the contents of this volume, in which solid factual reporting is balanced by thoughtful commentary.The contributors have written lively articles that evaluate as well as summarize the state of the research on life, works, and influence, offering refreshing new overviews. The book has been attractively designed, with itine informative black and white illustrations, and carefully edited (the misspelling of Horst Dreitzel's name is the single noteworthy mistake). From the useful list of editions at the beginning through to three short articles on institutions that sustain Lessing, this volume in the Camden House Companion series may indeed read profitably by the reader with a general interest in the subject and also by specialists in the field. It is impossible in the space of a short review to do full justice to each of the contributions. The titles are clear and accurate reflections of the topics covered; the authors will be familiar to those who work on the eighteenth century as established authorities: Barbara Fischer and Thomas C. Fox, Lessing's Life and Work, Steven D. Martinson, Lessing and the European Enlightenment, Klaus L. Berghahn, Lessing the Critic: Polemics as Enlightenment, John Pizer, Lessing and me Fable, Beate Allert, Lessing's Poetics as an Approach to Aesthetics, H. B. Nisbet, Lessing and Philosophy, Arno Schilson, Lessing and Theology, Willi Goetschel, Lessing and the Jews, Peter Hoyng, Lessing's Drama Theory: Discursive Writings on Drama, Performance, and Theater, Karin A. Wurst, Gender and Identity in Dramas ,Ann Schmiesing, Lessing and the Third Reich, Reinhart Meyer, Lessing on the German-Speaking Stage in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, 1945-1990, Hans-Joachim Kertscher and Thomas C. Fox, Lessing on the East German Stage and Screen, and Hinrich C. Seeba, Modern Criticism in Historical Context: 200 Years of Reception. Without slighting by omission any of the contributions, a few remarks on particularly noteworthy aspects of image as it appears here are in order. First, the status of dramas is starkly different than received opinion would have it. On the basis of his enormous bibliography project, Reinhart Meyer is able to state bluntly that with the exception of Minna von Barnhelm, Emilia Galotti, and Nathan der Weise plays are virtually unknown to German theater authences. Furthermore, he asserts, external factors rather than intrinsic merit has kept these plays alive. …