The life of Georg Buchner was short, intense, and tragic—and extremely significant for the development of modern drama. His three plays, Danton's Death, Leonce and Lena, and Woyzeck, were greatly ahead of their time in their penetrating dramatic and psychological treatment. They served as an impetus for contemporary schools of drama as different as the Theatre of the Absurd of Ionesco and the Epic Theatre of Brecht.

Also presented in this only complete volume of Buchner in English are his two powerful prose pieces, The Hessian Courier and his short story, Lenz.

"Like William Blake, [Buchner] is one of those extraordinary prodigies who occasionally bursts into the sky of history--unexpected, unforeseen--and proceeds to cast his illumination over future generations."--The New York Review of Books