REISEBILDER, rrz6-10der. The 'Pic tures of Travel) belong to the first period of Heine's literary career and made him famous as a writer of prose. The first volume (1826) and the second (1827) are partly in prose and partly in verse, while the third (1830) and fourth (1831) contain prose only. Heine in corporated the poems which occur in the 'Pictures of Travel) (Vol. I, (The Return Home,' 'From the Journey to the Harz) and the first section of (The Vol II, the second section of (The Northsea>) into the (Book of Songs.) The 'Letters from Berlin' (prose) which appeared in the first edition of the 'Pictures of Travel' (Vol. II) were omitted in subsequent editions. Heine drew directly on his personal experiences for all the Pictures of Travel,' and at times his genius lights up his subjects with the brilliance of lightning, at times we feel more as a passing breath of wind the spirit and the atmosphere of times and places. On the other hand, the author's own personality, his political views and various accessory circumstances of his travels stand out altogether too prominently to permit of comprehensive and objective visions of the regions he visited. Heine never con fines himself to his subject, but speaks —as he himself said — "of everything and a few things besides,' mingling with perfect ease the bril liant and the disgusting, the touching and the malicious, the humorous and the sentimental, the grand and the trivial. Irony and love of
liberty are two qualities which especially mani fest themselves. Among the features and topics which mark the various parts of the