This is a new and accessible study of the plays of Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811), an author who ranks in importance with Goethe and Schiller in the nineteenth century and has been a major influence on contemporary German writers. Sean Allan tackles a number of long-running controversies in Kleist scholarship, showing how Kleist's plays expose the contradictions inherent in the transcendent aspirations of both Enlightenment and Romantic metaphysics.

Central to this critique is the view that the attempt to embrace fictitious ideals of perfection forms an insuperable obstacle to genuine human progress. The book includes chapters on two works often ignored by scholars - Das Kathchen von Heilbronn and Die Hermannsschlacht - and contains concise summaries of the current state of research on all of Kleist's plays. All quotations appear in both German and English, and full references are given to published English translations of Kleist's work.