Max Halbe

German playwright and novelist. Born into a landowning family near Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland). The theatrical success of "Youth" (1893), an adolescent tragedy with strong local color, earned him recognition as a naturalist playwright. He lived in Munich and published another play, "Mother Earth" (1897), but success thereafter ebbed away. His talent for describing things as if they were one with nature suited him to lyric poetry and novels, and indeed in later years he focused his efforts on novels, but he was unable to break away from his naturalistic style until the end. In his later years he wrote his autobiographies, "Clay and Fate" and "Fin de siècle."

[Tatsuji Iwabuchi]

"Youth and Two Other Stories" (Iwanami Bunko) translated by Eiichi Banshoya

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ドイツの劇作家、小説家。ダンツィヒ（現ポーランド領グダニスク）近郊の地主の家に生まれる。郷土色豊かな思春期の悲劇『青春』（1893）の舞台上の成功によって自然主義劇作家として認められる。ミュンヘンに住み、さらに戯曲『母なる大地』（1897）を発表したが、以後成功から遠ざかった。自然と同化するような描写の才能は、叙情詩や小説に向いているし、事実後年は小説に主力を注いだが、自然主義的手法からは最後まで抜け出せなかった。晩年に自伝『土塊(つちくれ)と運命』『世紀末』を残している。

［岩淵達治］

『番匠谷英一訳『青春　他二編』（岩波文庫）』

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