Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664) was the greatest German poet and dramatist of the 17th century, yet he remains virtually unknown outside his own country. One of the chief reasons for his relative obscurity outside Germany is that almost all studies devoted to him are written in German. Another problem has to do with the inaccessibility of the recondite forms of Baroque literature.

This book is designed especially for students and scholars in disciplines other than German, particularly those in comparative literature and the modern languages, where a lack of knowledge about this major German writer distorts a proper international perspective on major figures of the 17th century.But it also addresses the Germanist, especially scholars in Germany; they will find interpretations and a way of presenting them entirely new.