The Marquise of O and Other Stories

"A young Marquise, caught in mortal danger in the midst of a furious battle, falls into a deep swoon. She comes round moments later, however, safe within her castle and apparently unharmed, and is able to resume her life in gratitude and complacency. So when, weeks later, she is alarmed by strange periods of faintness and indisposition, the solution that suggests itself seems entirely irrational. How could the widowed young Marquise be pregnant? And what will her parents say?" "Imbued with subtle comic moments and lashed by the passionate outbursts of anger and love experienced by characters caught in a bizarre and unpredictable chain of events, The Marquise of O- is a truly Kleistian twist on the long tradition of sexual drama. Its companion pieces, The Earthquake in Chile and The Foundling, are darker and more uncompromising in flavour, demonstrating, in their flashes of horror and injustice, the full range of Kleist's art."--BOOK JACKET.

David Luke was born in 1921 and is Tutor in German at Christ Church, Oxford. He has published articles and essays on German literature and various prose and verse translations, including Goethe’s Selected Verse (1964) for the Penguin Poets, Kleist’s The Marquise of O and Other Stories (1978) for the Penguin Classics, Thomas Mann’s Tonio Kröger and Other Stories (1970) and Goethe’s Roman Elegies (1977).
Nigel Reeves was born in 1939 and graduated at Worcester College, Oxford, in 1963, taking his D.Phil. in 1970. He was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Tübingen and, since 1975, has been Professor of German at the University of Surrey. He is also Head of Department of Linguistic and International Studies there, and Dean of the Faculty of Human Studies. He has translated stories by Kleist and Keller for the Penguin Book of German Stories and has published monographs on Heinrich Heine and Friedrich Schiller.
Nigel Reeves was born in 1939 and graduated at Worcester College, Oxford, in 1963, taking his D.Phil. in 1970. He was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Tübingen and, since 1975, has been Professor of German at the University of Surrey. He is also Head of Department of Linguistic and International Studies there, and Dean of the Faculty of Human Studies. He has translated stories by Kleist and Keller for the Penguin Book of German Stories and has published monographs on Heinrich Heine and Friedrich Schiller.