Eichendorff's imagination and language draw on fundamental categories of world experience; they aim to protect against loss and fear and to preserve their subjects from destruction. In particular, the works in this volume, which include stories from 1832 to 1849 and the artist novel "Poets and Their Companions," demonstrate how the Romantic writer Eichendorff became a historically and politically engaged author and how deeply his poems are rooted in their time. He responded satirically, polemically, and ironically to the political events of his day, coming from a spirit of a Romanticism that was not only preserved but also tested and fortified. Yet, his timeless images, symbols, and formulas always refer to something else that lies behind the things and gives them meaning. An excellent edition that serves both the interested reader and the scholar.