The German Novelle-or short prose fiction-was a major literary form in 19th-century Germany. This book studies the roots from which the Novelle sprang-tracing the affinities between the Novelle and the Romance tradition of Boccaccio and Cervantes-important statements on its form and function appear here in appendices-but Paulin's main purpose is to relate the theoretical to the continuity of the genre, to examples written outside Germany, and to the wider context of German literature in the 19th century.)