Christian Heinrich Spiess (4 April 1755 – 17 August 1799) was a German writer of romances and later pulp fiction, horror stories.

Life

He was born in

Freiberg Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany. It is a so-called ''Große Kreisstadt'' (large county town) and the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district. Its historic town centre has been placed under heritage c ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

. For a time an actor, he was appointed in 1788 controller on the estate of Count Caspar Hermann von Künigl at Besdiekau in Bohemia, where he died, almost insane, the result of his weird fancies, on 17 August 1799. Spiess, in his ''Ritter-'', ''Räuber-'' and ''Geister-Romane'', as they are called—stories of knights, robbers and ghosts of the "dark" ages—the idea of which he borrowed from

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

's ''

Götz von Berlichingen Gottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen (1480 – 23 July 1562), also known as Götz of the Iron Hand, was a German (Franconian) Imperial Knight (''Reichsritter''), mercenary, and poet. He was born around 1480 into the noble family of Berliching ...

'' and Schiller's ''

Die Räuber ''The Robbers'' (', ) is the first drama by German playwright Friedrich Schiller. The play was published in 1781 and premiered on 13 January 1782 in Mannheim, Germany, and was inspired by Leisewitz' earlier play '' Julius of Taranto''. It wa ...

'' and '' Der Geisterseher'', was the founder of the German ''Schauerroman'' (shocker), a style of writing continued, though in a finer vein, by Carl Gottlob Cramer (1758–1817) and by Goethe's brother-in-law, Christian August Vulpius. These stories, appealing largely to the vulgar taste, made Spiess one of the most widely read authors of his day. The most popular was a ghost story of the 13th century, ''Das Petermännchen'' (1793); this was an influence on the work of

Ann Radcliffe Ann Radcliffe (née Ward; 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English novelist and a pioneer of Gothic fiction. Her technique of explaining apparently supernatural elements in her novels has been credited with gaining respectability for G ...

and the novel ''

The Monk ''The Monk: A Romance'' is a Gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis, published in 1796. A quickly written book from early in Lewis's career (in one letter he claimed to have written it in ten weeks, but other correspondence suggests that he ha ...

'' by

Matthew Gregory Lewis Matthew Gregory Lewis (9 July 1775 – 14 or 16 May 1818) was an English novelist and dramatist, whose writings are often classified as "Gothic horror". He was frequently referred to as "Monk" Lewis, because of the success of his 1796 Gothic no ...

. The novel involves a

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

who is encouraged by an evil ghost (in the form of a

dwarf Dwarf or dwarves may refer to: Common uses *Dwarf (folklore), a being from Germanic mythology and folklore * Dwarf, a person or animal with dwarfism Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a humanoid ...

) to commit

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adopti ...

and murder, before being torn to pieces by

the Devil Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood ...

. Among his other ''Schauerroman'' stories were ''Der alte Überall'' and ''Nirgends'' (1792); ''Die Löwenritter'' (1794), and ''Hans Heiling, vierter und letzter Regent der Erd- Luft- Feuer- und Wasser-Geister'' (1798). Beside numerous comedies, Spiess wrote, anticipating Schiller, a tragedy ''Maria Stuart'' (1784), which was in the same year performed at the court theatre in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Bibliography

Karl Goedeke Karl Friedrich Ludwig Goedeke (15 April 1814 – 28 October 1887) was a German historian of literature, an author, and a professor. He was born at Celle and was educated at Göttingen (1833-1838), where he attended lectures by Jacob Grimm, with w ...

, ''Grundrisz zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung'', v. 506 sqq. *Müller-Fraureuth, ''Die Ritter- and Räuberromane'' (Halle, 1894).

References

Attribution: *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spiess, Christian Heinrich 1755 births 1799 deaths 18th-century German novelists German male novelists Pulp fiction writers 18th-century German male writers People from Freiberg 18th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in the Czech Republic