"Only in form is the problem resolved" - this quote from Hugo von Hofmannsthal serves as the motto for the essays. The author intends for them to be understood as fragments of "two opposing concepts": "Problems that solidify into forms, forms that conceal problems." Hence the antithetical structure of the book: essays on theater are followed by chapters dedicated to "Figures" (from Casanova to Hofmannsthal). Among the structural analyses, each focusing on individual pieces of a genre, is the much-cited study of Eichendorff's landscape, one of the key contributions to the shaping of space in poetry. In the studies collected under the title "Contacts and Contrasts," the forms and problems confront each other openly. Finally, "Fear and Mystery," Alewyn's investigations from recent years, establish the pleasure in fear.