ABSTRACT
Except for Der Hessische Landbote, which can hardly be classified as literature, Dantons Tod 1 is, as we have seen, Büchner’s first original work, and his most impressive finished production. It was, we recall, completed in February 1835, and published very soon afterwards, parts of it as early as March 26, and the whole thing by July. The letters giving Büchner’s views on human character, history, historical drama in general, and Dantons Tod in particular, sent to Gutzkow and to the Büchner family, apropos of the play, have already been fully discussed, and it is therefore unnecessary to do more than refer a reader back to that discussion, save only in respect of the last and most important of those letters, that written to the family on July 28, 1835, which is worth recapitulating, with brief comments, in abbreviated form, under six headings. These are as follows:
