A wonderful collection of moral tales, anecdotes, jokes, reports of murders, disasters and mysteries, all originally written for inclusion in a popular religious almanac. First issued in collected form in 1811, Hebel's stories cover a broad spectrum of human experience, with characters ranging from Napoleon and the Austrian Emperor Joseph, to common soldiers and working men and women.
Author
Johann Peter Hebel (10 May 1760 – 22 September 1826) was a German short story writer, dialectal poet, evangelical theologian and pedagogue, most famous for a collection of Alemannic lyric poems (Allemannische Gedichte) and one of German tales (Schatzkästlein des rheinischen Hausfreundes – Treasure Chest of the Family Friend from the Rhine). Goethe, Tolstoy, Gottfried Keller, Hermann Hesse and other writers have praised his works.
