Joseph Perl's two epistolary novels, published in 1819 and 1838, far surpass typical Hebrew prose from the early nineteenth century. The leading Enlightenment authors (the maskilim) were deliberate epigones, because they favored the rhetorical modes called shibuẓ and meliẓah. By imitating the Hebrew of the Prophets—under the influence of the ornate style known from medieval Spain—the Berlin Enlightenment authors and their followers strove for what they considered to be “pure language” (leshon ẓaḥ). Their preference for allusion and quotation encouraged epigonism and made originality a lesser priority; many Berlin maskilim valued the adherence to norms more than original self-expression. The epitome of that devotion to literary norms was the genre of the Briefsteller, exemplified by Buchner's and Naiman's works, which taught Jews how to write polite German or Hebrew letters and sound like cultivated, well-educated Europeans.