Heinrich Heine. A Selected Critical Bibliography of Secondary Literature, 1956-1980 by Jeffrey L. Sammons (review)

266Rocky Mountain Review only has to view the photographs of Hoover and the popular culture images of his agents in Powers' G-Men to understand the truth of the myth. LONNIE L. WILLIS Boise State University JEFFREY L. SAMMONS. Heinrich Heine. A Selected Critical Bibliography of Secondary Literature, 1956-1980. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1982. 194 p. This volume represents a generous gift on the part of Jeffrey Sammons to students and scholars of Heinrich Heine. As the author of two major books, numerous articles, reviews, and reports dealing with Heine, Sammons has given ample evidence of his extensive knowledge about the life, writings, and reputation of this problematic German poet. A hallmark of Sammons' work has been meticulous scholarship based on copious research; and while it is surely true that no one individual could possibly master all of the secondary literature on Heine published in recent years, Sammons probably comes as close as anyone else to achieving this feat. Still, Sammons is primarily a critic and not a bibliographer; it is to his credit that he has taken the rather unusual step of sharing the fruits of over twenty years of Heine research with others in this comprehensive, annotated bibliography. It contains 977 items; with the exception of a few important reprints (for example, Lukács' article on Heine and the revolution of 1848) all have appeared between the centenary of Heine's death and the 125th anniversary of this event in 1981. It is Sammons' stated purpose "to include all genuinely scholarly work in the major Western languages" (xiii). Excluded are unpublished dissertations (with a few important exceptions), pedagogical literature, commentary in newspapers and the like, Heine translations, fictional works about Heine (cf. the 1978 "novel" by Hans-Christian Kirsch, . . . und küßte des Scharfrichters Tochter. Heinrich Heines erste Liebe), articles in literary history or thematic studies, as well as — and this is vintage Sammons — "a small amount of utter flapdoodle and rant" (xiv). Beyond these reasonable omissions, the bibliography is remarkably complete; and although this secondary literature can be found elsewhere (in Seifert's Heine-Bibliographie , Hermand's Streitobjekt Heine, the Heine Jahrbücher, or English Language Notes), it is invaluable to have at hand a single compilation of all important scholarship done during this most recent period of Heine ferment. More remarkable still is that "with only a handful of exceptions" (xiv) Sammons has seen and presumably read all the items listed. Every entry is annotated with at least one sentence of commentary, usually two or three. This is daring business. It is one thing to incur the displeasure of colleagues for omitting this or that work (I, for example, think the 1974 reprint of Paul Beyer's Derjunge Heine should have been included), another to risk the wrath of those same colleagues for what may be read as a negative thumbnail review of one's favorite or — God forbid — one's own critical work. Sammons addresses the issue squarely in his introduction: "There is admittedly something unsatisfactory about criticisms and characterizations of often quite complex and carefully wrought studies phrased in a few sentences. I believe my opinions have a right to be taken as serious and thoughtful. . . .But Book Reviews267 they are not the only possible opinions, and the thorough student of Heine should not be content with them, but should consult the whole range of discussion and especially the dialogue in book reviews" (xii-xiii). In point of fact, each user of the bibliography is free to take or leave such pithy evaluations as "exceptionally sensitive interpretation," "important contribution ," "far-fetched," or "stunningly unreadable"; more important are Sammons' helpful pointers on the gist of a given argument and on the author's methodological orientation. These should save the harried Heine student from many a wild-goose chase. The bibliography is ordered according to eight broad headings: Editions; Bibliography and Research Reports; Biographical Studies; Philological Studies; Letters; General Expositions and Commentary; Criticism; and Reception, Reputation, Influence, and Comparative Studies. Six subheadings under Criticism identify the broad categories of Heine's oeuvre. Two comprehensive indexes (Authors and Editors, Works and Subjects) further facilitate the search for specific material. A sampling ofthe entries reveals absolute...