Meyer, Conrad Ferdinand

Born Oct. 11, 1825, in Zürich; died Nov. 28, 1898, in Kilchberg. Swiss writer. Wrote in German.

Meyer came from an old patrician family and was educated as a historian and philologist. He made his literary debut with the collection Twenty Ballads (1864). His dramatic poem Hutten’s Last Days (1871) was imbued with antidespotic sentiments and contained qualities typical of his works in general: a realistic attitude toward life, subtle psychological insights, and integrity of world perception. In his historical novel Jürg Jenatsch (1876; Russian translation, 1918), Meyer depicted the rise and fall of an enterprising burgher cast into the midst of the struggle for liberation in 17th-century Switzerland. His short stories “The Saint” (1880) and “Plautus in the Nunnery” (1882) were evocations of strong characters from the distant past. Meyer was able to capture the spirit of the era he was describing. In his late short stories, including “Angela Borgia” (1891), his penchant for depicting spiritual torments and death increased. Meyer’s works were highly esteemed by M. Gorky and A. V. Lunacharskii.