Excerpt from Preisgekroent: Eine Heitere Geschichte Ernst eckstein was born on the sixth of Pebru ary, 1845, at Giessen, in the beautiful valley of the Lahn. After completing, at the age of seventeen, a thorough course of classical study in the Gymnasium, he made a journey to Italy and France. On return ing, the young man, now well prepared by school and travel and possessing no small amount of literary en thusiasm, began his university studies and pursued them industriously at Giessen, Bonn, and Berlin, and finished at Marburg in 1867 with the doctor's degree. Philosophy, history, philology, and literature were his favorite subjects. In 1868 he went to Paris, where he acted as correspondent for several German papers, and completed his first work, the humorous epos Sclzac/z a'er Kfizz'gz'e. Eckstein has given an account of the origin and history of this book. His statements on this subject will now be briefly reviewed in order to show the reception accorded his first important literary effort. When he began to write, he says, there was in his mind no clear idea or definite plan as to What would be the result. He wrote, struck out, changed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.