{"product_id":"9780811223553","title":"Prince Friedrich of Homburg: A New Translation for the American Stage","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePrince Friedrich of Homburg\u003c\/em\u003e is the indisputable dramatic masterpiece of Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811), a leading figure, along with Goethe and Schiller, among early German Romantics.\u003c\/p\u003e Available until now only in verse translation, it has been newly rendered for the American stage by Diana Stone Peters and Frederick G. Peters.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A work of profound psychological insight, \u003cem\u003ePrince Friedrich of Homburg\u003c\/em\u003e probes with passionate intensity questions fundamental to “civilized” behavior. Prince Friedrich, the hero of the historic battle of Fehrbellin (1675) against the invading Swedes, receives not laurels for his victory but the sentence of death for disobeying orders in the field. Faced with certain execution, his mood swings from abject terror to high-minded exultation as first he challenges, and then accepts, the rule of law and subservience to the state. The action moves relentlessly in the near-frenzied pace characteristic of Kleist. Intended as a paean to a Prussia triumphant in the Napoleonic wars. the play was, ironically, censured and never produced in Kleist's lifetime. In our own day, \u003cem\u003ePrince Friedrich of Homburg\u003c\/em\u003e has been both denounced as a protofascist work and lauded as a supreme metaphysical disquisition. Whatever the merits of such intellectualization, it remains one of the most moving and performable plays available for the modern stage.","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47129368953072,"sku":"9780811223553","price":9.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780811223553_p0.jpg?v=1763728763","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780811223553","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}