Adalbert Stifter (23 October 1805 - 28 January 1868) was an Austrian writer, poet, painter, and pedagogue. He was especially notable for the vivid natural landscapes depicted in his writing, and has long been popular in the German-speaking world, while almost entirely unknown to English readers.
Born in Oberplan in Bohemia (now Horní Planá, Czech Republic), he went to the University of Vienna in 1826 to study law. In 1828 he fell in love with Fanny Greipl, but after a relationship lasting five years, her parents forbade further correspondence, a loss from which he never recovered. In 1835 he became engaged to Amalia Mohaupt, and they married in 1837, but the marriage was not a happy one.
Instead of becoming a state official, he became a tutor to the aristocrats of Vienna, and highly regarded as such. His students included Princess Maria Anna von Schwarzenberg and Richard Metternich, son of Klemens Wenzel von Metternich. He also made some money from selling paintings, and published his first story, "Der Condor", in 1840. An immediate success, it inaugurated a steady writing career.
Stifter visited to Linz in 1848, and moved there permanently a year later, where he became editor of the Linzer Zeitung and the Wiener Bote. In 1850 he was appointed supervisor of elementary schools for Upper Austria.
His health began to decline in 1854, and he became seriously ill in 1863 (the exact disease is unknown). In deep depression, he slashed his neck with a razor on the night of 25 January 1868 and died a few days later.
Stifter's work is characterized by the pursuit of beauty; his characters strive to be moral, and move in gorgeous landscapes luxuriously described. Evil, cruelty, and suffering rarely appear, and the outlook is relentlessly optimistic. Although perhaps one-dimensional compared to his more famous and realistic contemporaries, his visions of ideal worlds are reminiscent of fantasy.
The majority of his works are long stories or short novels, many of which were published in multiple versions, sometimes radically changed.
Witiko is a historical novel set in the 12th century, a strange work panned by many critics, but praised by Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann.
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