ABSTRACT
August von Kotzebue was German dramatist and writer, whose remarkably popular plays – translated into multiple languages and produced across Europe and the US – are often considered to be the first examples of melodrama, the sentimental style so popular on the nineteenth-century stage. Misanthropy and Repentance , translated into English as The Stranger , was one of his most popular and bestselling plays, especially in the Anglophone world. The story provides an account of the heroic recluse, ‘the stranger’, and Mrs Haller, his wife, who had separated after she eloped with another man. The play explores themes that were central to nineteenth-century popular culture, including sexual infidelity and forgiveness, and sociability and masculinity. That its heightened emotional register was so popular, indeed fashionable, during the era is suggestive of the emotional culture of the time.
