Eight German Novellas, trans. Michael Fleming (OUP, £6.99 in UK)

Among the greatest riches of German literature are its short "poetic" novels, most of them from the Romantic period and many of them written by men or women who were fine poets in their own right. Perhaps the most famous and most perfect of them all, Morike's Mozart's Journey to Prague, is included in this collection. The other writers are Tieck, Buchner (whose Lenz is a striking forerunner of Expressionism), Stifter, Keller, Kleist (The Marchioness of O, which has been filmed), Annette von Droste Hulshoff, Storm. An exceptional and courageous anthology, in an area which continues to be sadly neglected outside Germany.