New, specially commissioned essays on representative works of 19th-century German realism.

Introduction: Reawakening German Realism - Todd Kontje
Adalbert Stifter's Brigitta, or the Lesson of Realism - Robert C. Holub
Mühlbach, Ranke, and the Truth of Historical Fiction - Brent O. Peterson
"In the Heart of the Heart of the Country": Regional Histories as National History in Gustav Freytag's Die Ahnen (1872-80)(1872-80) -
A Woman's Post: Gender and Nation in Historical Fiction by Louise von François - Thomas C. Fox
Friedrich Spielhagen: The Demon of Theory and the Decline of Reputation - Jeffrey L Sammons
Wilhelm Raabe and the German Colonial Experience - John Pizer
From National Task to Individual Pursuit: The Poetics of Work in Freytag, Stifter, and Raabe - Hans J. Rindisbacher
Das Republikanische, das Demokratische, das Pantheistische: Jewish Identity in Berthold Auerbach's Novels - Irene Stocksiecker Di Maio
E. Marlitt: Narratives of Virtuous Desire - Kirsten Belgum
The Appeal of Karl May in the Wilhelmine Empire: Emigration, Modernization, and the Need for Heroes - Nina Berman
Making Way for the Third Sex: Liberal and Antiliberal Impulses in Mann's Portrayal of Male-Male Desire in His Early Short Fiction - Robert Tobin
Effi Briest and the End of Realism - Russell A. Berman