Salomon Gessner

At A Time When German Was Generally Despised As A Barbaric Tongue Salomon Gessner Was Hailed In Europe As A Poet Of Universal Significance. Yet Today He Is Scarcely Known. John Hibberd Sets The Writer In Context Traces The Story Of His Impact And Stresses His Significance As A Key To The Taste Of His Age. He Finds The Reasons For Gessner''S Remarkable Success In His Appeal To The Feeling For Nature And Natural Simplicity Nascent In The Mid-Eighteenth Century And In His Ability To Be Many Things To Many Men By Reconciling The Main Cultural Trends Of That Time - Pre-Romanticism And Neo-Classicism. Originally Published In 1976 This Was The First Book On The Subject In English. It Went Beyond Previous Books On Gessner In Both Detail And Scope; It Called For A Greater Appreciation Of Gessner''S Historical Importance But Also Assesed His Achievements As A Writer Engraver And Painter.