"Like Theodor Fontane's "Effi Briest," Storm's book combines a story of societal pressures with a touch of the supernatural...There is plenty of eerie Germanic mood here, but there is also a fine and tragic story of a man who follows his own path to its final, terrible end and people who fail to recognize sacrifice." -"Publishers Weekly" "A new translation of a famous 1888 novella...This is a marvelous work, effortlessly lifted to eerie supernatural heights...Storm's mastery of the details of dyke-building and bourgeois political intrigue ground it firmly in recognizable reality. There is nothing better in German fiction prior to the work of Thomas Mann." -"Kirkus Reviews" "Theodor Storm, master of the 19th-century novella." -"The Spectator" "Written in 1888, the story is set along Germany's North Sea coast which Storm, as a native Schleswig Holsteiner, knew and loved, and is a powerful, tragic tale of man's battle with the elements - in this case, the sea - and of an individual at odds with the narrow society around him. The almost visionary evocation of nature, and the vivid word painting of this region of dykes and polders and vast mud flats, are the key to this classic short novel by a man who was also a distinguished poet." -"The Irish Times" "Storm is a writer for whom most lovers of German literature have a soft spot. He is a master of atmosphere, unique in his ability to endow the details of realistic description with the fragile aura of transience precisely because they are so vividly captured." -"A Companion to German Literature" "This fine new translation of Storm's 'Der Schimmelreiter' first published in 1888, when it was immediately recognised as amasterpiece of romantic idealism. Its setting is the eerie coast of North Friesland, vulnerable to frightening storms and under perpetual threat from the sea; its eighteenth-century hero, the dykemaster, builds new and better defenses, but his battle against the forces of nature stands also for another battle, against the bigoted fundamentalism of hostile villagers. In accordance with the genre, of which this is a brilliant example, the plot includes a suitably creepy ghost storm." -"Sunday Telegraph" "Translations of the high standard as this one are more than ever in demand." -Mary Garland, editor of "The Oxford Companion to German Literature" "This is an excellent...translation." -"Independent" on Sunday "The Rider on the White Horse” begins as a ghost story. A traveler along the coast of the North Sea is caught in dangerously rough weather. Offshore he glimpses a spectral rider rising and plunging in the wind and rain. Taking shelter at an inn, the traveler mentions the apparition, and the local schoolmaster volunteers a story.The story is both simple and subtle, and its peculiar power is to surprise us slowly. It is a story of determination, of a young man, Hauke Haien, living in a remote community (Storm depicts the village with the luminous precision of a Vermeer), who is out to make a name for himself and to remake his world. It is a story of devotion and disappointment, of pettiness and superstition, of spiritual pride and ultimate desolation, and of the beauty and indifference of the natural world. It is a story that opens up in the end to uncover the foundation of savagery on which human society rests. Theodor Storm's great novella, which will remind readers of the work of Thomas Hardy, is one of the supreme masterpieces of German literature. It is here limpidly translated by the American poet James Wright, along with seven other shorter works, including the lyrical love story "Immensee.”