Overview

Heinrich has just turned twenty and is consumed by thoughts of a mysterious flower. Leaving the cold homeland of his father, he travels south—encountering knights, a Muslim captive, a miner, and a hermit—until he meets Mathilde, who awakens his vocation for poetry. Heinrich’s love of Mathilde opens his eyes to the mysteries of the world. But it will take a tragic event for Heinrich to realize the secret power of poetry...

Heinrich von Ofterdingen, left unfinished at the time of the author’s death, is a masterpiece of philosophical fiction and a classic of German literature. Novalis probes the core problem of modern life—fragmentation and our sense of alienation from the world. Heinrich von Ofterdingen is a timeless expression of the Romantics' idea that only the imagination, guided by love, can bring us back to our spiritual home.