Heinrich von Kleist lived in a pivotal historical period. His lifetime saw the collapse of the monarchical order in France and the discrediting of the corporative state in Prussia. Equally momentously, it was an age in which the Enlightenment, with its belief in the sovereign power of human reason, came to be questioned, relativized, and partially discredited by a set of powerful critiques arising from Kantian philosophy, the work of the Romantics, and the beginnings of nationalist thought in Europe. The study of Kleist's life and work can illuminate our understanding of this period, for it provides an insight into the lived experience of an individual. Kleist was not only shaped by the intellectual and political climate that surrounded him; through his responses, both public and private, he also helped to shape that climate. The leading political and intellectual currents of the age influenced in various senses the opportunities that were open to Kleist as an individual. Not only did the prevailing currents affect the social milieu and the institutions within which his life was played out, they also established a set of practical and intellectual responses that were available to someone in his position. Kleist was typical in some respects of a generation of German intellectuals who questioned the political and scholarly orthodoxy of their age. At the same time, he was an eccentric in his own times, a highly original thinker who was little understood by his contemporaries and little appreciated.