The Robbers and Wallenstein by Friedrich von Schiller

The Robbers and Wallenstein by Friedrich von Schiller

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book contains two plays- The Robbers, and the trilogy Wallenstein.

I enjoyed The Robbers more than I thought I would. I give that one 4 stars. I think I'd describe it as the love child of the Robin Hood story and a Shakespearean tragedy. But it was very fast paced, well written (and well translated) and enjoyable to read.

Wallenstein is considered Schiller's masterpiece, but I did not enjoy it all that much. I give it two stars. This is actually three plays- Wallenstein's Camp, The Piccolomini, and Wallenstein's Death. I can sum up the three works in three words: history, politics, war. The last installment was the most enjoyable to me, probably because it was the only one with any action to it. The rest was a lot of standing around, talking about exciting things that already happened off stage.

If you have an interest in European political and military history, this might appeal to you a lot more than it did to me.

View all my reviews