Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/problematicchar00veregoog 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [Oe] or [oe]. BY COPYRIGHT ARRANGEMENT WITH THE AUTHOR. F. Spielhagen's Complete Works. _Translated from the German_. _JUST PUBLISHED_. I. PROBLEMATIC CHARACTERS. A Novel. Translated by Prof. Schele de Vere. 12mo. Cloth. $2.00. II. THROUGH NIGHT TO LIGHT. A Novel. Translated by Prof. Schele de Vere. Uniform with the above. 12mo. cloth. $2.00. CRITICAL NOTICES. "Such a novel as no English author with whom we are acquainted could have written, and no American author except Hawthorne. What separates it from the multitude of American and English novels is the perfection of its plot, and it's author's insight into the souls of his characters.... If Germany is poorer than England, as regards the number of its novelists, it in richer when we consider the intellectual value of their works. If it has not produced a Thackeray, or a Dickens, it has produced, we venture to think, two writers who are equal to them in genius, and superior to them in the depth and spirituality of their art--Auerbach and Spielhagen."--_Putnam's Magazine_. "The name is suggested by a passage in Goethe, which serves as a motto to the book. Spielhagen means to illustrate what Goethe speaks of--natures not in full possession of themselves, who are not equal to any situation in life, and whom no situation satisfies"--the Hamlet of our latest civilisation. With these he deals in a poetic, ideal fashion, yet also with humor, and, what is less to be expected in a German, with sparkling, flashing wit, and a cynical vein that reminds one of Heine. He has none of the tiresome detail of Auerbach, while he lacks somewhat that excellent man's profound devotion to the moral sentiment. There is more depth of passion and of thought in Spielhagen, together with a French liveliness by no means common in German novelists.... At any rate, they are vastly superior to the bulk of English novels which are annually poured out upon us--as much above Trollope's as Steinberger Cabinet is better than London porter.--_Springfield Republican_.