In the following study, I have dealt with all the plays of Kleist in chronological order. I have not, however, included an individual chapter on Robert Guiskard because of its fragmentary nature.

I am grateful to the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst for financial assistance towards the completion of this work. In addition I would like to thank Yale University Press for permission to reproduce extracts from Heinrich von Kleist, Five plays, edited, translated and introduced by Martin Greenberg (New Haven and London, 1988) and to Penguin USA for permission to reproduce extracts from An abyss deep enough: letters of Heinrich von Kleist with a selection of anecdotes, edited, translated and introduced by Philip B. Miller (New York, 1982).

A great many people have offered assistance at various stages during the preparation of the text. I would like to thank Dr Katharina Brett, Alison Gilderdale and Hazel Brooks at Cambridge University Press for their constant help and guidance. Julia Allen, Dr Ian Roe and Dr Suzanne Stark also offered invaluable assistance and advice on numerous points of detail. In particular, however, I should like to thank Professor Roger Paulin, Dr Erika Swales, Professor Martin Swales and Dr Nicholas Boyle for their helpful suggestions and comments. Needless to say, any remaining errors are entirely my own responsibility.

Finally I should like to acknowledge a great debt of thanks to the late Mr Ralph Manheim, whose support and encouragement throughout the research for this study was instrumental to its completion. It is to his memory that this book is dedicated.