German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries is a collection of carefully selected masterpieces of German literature in last two centuries. The most representative German writers of each period are brought together and represented by their best and finest works from the great epoch of Classicism and Romanticism to early modern literature of twentieth century: Vol. I & II: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Vol. III: Friedrich von Schiller Vol. IV: Jean Paul; Wilhelm von Humboldt; August Wilhelm Schlegel; Friedrich Schlegel; Novalis; Friedrich Hölderlin; Ludwig Tieck; Heinrich von Kleist Vol. V: Friedrich Schleiermacher; Johann Gottlieb Fichte; Friedrich Wilhem Joseph von Schelling; Ludgwig Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano; Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; Ernst Moritz Arndt; Theodor Kürner; Maximilian Gottfried von Schenkendorf; Ludwig Uhland; Joseph von Eichendorff; Adalbert von Chamisso; Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann; Friedrich Baron de la Motte-Fouqué; Wilhelm Hauff; Friedrich Rükert; August von Platen-Hallermund Vol. VI: Heinrich Heine; Franz Grillparzer; Ludwig van Beethoven Vol. VII: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; Bettina von Arnim; Karl Lebrecht Immermann; Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow; Anastasius Grün, Nikolaus Lenau; Eduard Mörike; Annette Elizabeth von Droste-Hülshoff; Ferdinand Freiligrath; Moritz Graf von Strachwitz; Georg Herwegh; Emanual Geigel Vol. VIII: Berthold Auerbach; Jeremias Gotthelf; Fritz Reuter; Adalbert Stifter; Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl Vol. IX: Friedrich Hebbel; Otto Ludwig Vol. X: Prince Otto von Bismarck; Count Helmuth von Moltke; Ferdinand Lassalle Vol. XI: Friedrich Spielhagen; Theodor Storm; Wilhelm Raabe Vol. XII: Gustav Freytag; Theodor Fontane Vol. XII: Helene Böhlau; Clara Viebig; Eduard von Keyserling; Thomas Mann; Ludwig Thoma; Rudolf Hans Bartsch; Emil Strauss; Hermann Hesse; Ernst Zahn; Jakob Schaffner Vol. XIV: Jakob Wassermann; Bernhard Kellermann; Max Halbe; Hugo von Hofmannsthal; Arthur Schnitzler; Frank Wedekind; Ernst Hardt

Seemingly the simplest of stories—a passing anecdote of village life— Rock Crystal opens up into a tale of almost unendurable suspense. This jewel-like novella by the writer that Thomas Mann praised as "one of the most extraordinary, the most enigmatic, the most secretly daring and the most strangely gripping narrators in world literature" is among the most unusual, moving, and memorable of Christmas stories. Two children—Conrad and his little sister, Sanna—set out from their village high up in the Alps to visit their grandparents in the neighboring valley. It is the day before Christmas but the weather is mild, though of course night falls early in December and the children are warned not to linger. The grandparents welcome the children with presents and pack them off with kisses. Then snow begins to fall, ever more thickly and steadily. Undaunted, the children press on, only to take a wrong turn. The snow rises higher and higher, time passes: it is deep night when the sky clears and Conrad and Sanna discover themselves out on a glacier, terrifying and beautiful, the heart of the void. Adalbert Stifter's rapt and enigmatic tale, beautifully translated by Elizabeth Mayer and Marianne Moore, explores what can be found between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day—or on any night of the year.