Adelbert von Chamisso is known as one of the German Romantics chiefly for his first major work, the novella Peter Schlemihl's wundersame Geschichte (Peter Schlemihl's Marvelous History, 1814; translated as Peter Schlemihl, 1823), which was widely translated and made him internationally famous. A gentleman scientist like Achim von Arnim and Novalis, Chamisso remained curiously detached from the mainstream Romantics; instead, he chose his close friends predominantly from a circle of intellectuals such as Julius Eduard Hitzig and Karl August Varnhagen von Ense. Consequently, he has remained a somewhat shadowy figure in literary histories. Chamisso's work is generally placed in the late Romantic period or that of early realism. The incomparable humor in his poetry and prose varies from innocent mirth to macabre irony. Other poems depict social inequities with stark realism. He was a master in the use of the older lyrical forms of terza rima and alliteration. His botanical...