Music in the Nachtwachen

Bonaventura's Nachtwachen (1804/05) has puzzled and troubled critics through its scepticism, nihilism, and scathing irony. By focussing on these aspects, critics have tended to overlook the role of music as a positive value and counterbalance to Bonaventura's mad topsy-turvy world. It is precisely this fascinating and multilayered use of music in the Nachtwachen that is explored in this book from a variety of different angles and perspectives. The book establishes the central importance of music as a literary metaphor as well as an absolute positive value in the world of the Nachtwachen . At the same time the book invites us to reconsider Bonaventura's novel in the light of the contemporary Romantic reception of music in German literature.