Aus dem Urteil der "Vereinigten Jugendschriften-Ausschüsse"- "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Lehrerverbände": "... über den Wert der Hauffschen Märchen etwas zu sagen ist überflüssig, zumal die Hamburger Lesehefte sie aufgenommen haben. Neben Erläuterungen zur 'Textgestaltung' und den 'Anmerkungen' sind die 'Ausführungen über den Märchendichter Wilhelm Hauff' im Anhang besonders wertvoll. Anmerkungen runden auch dieses Heft ab.
Wilhelm Hauff was a German poet and novelist best known for his fairy tales.
Educated at the University of Tübingen, Hauff worked as a tutor and in 1827 became editor of J.F. Cotta’s newspaper Morgenblatt. Hauff had a narrative and inventive gift and sense of form; he wrote with ease, combining narrative themes of others with his own. His work shows a pleasant, often spirited, wit. There is a strong influence of E.T.A. Hoffmann in his fantasy Mitteilungen aus den Memoiren des Satans (1826–27; “Pronouncements from the Memoirs of Satan”). Hauff’s Lichtenstein (1826), a historical novel of 16th-century Württemberg, was one of the first imitations of Sir Walter Scott. He is also known for a number of fairy tales that were published in his Märchenalmanach auf das Jahr 1826 and had lasting popularity. Similar volumes followed in 1827 and 1828. His novellas, which were collected posthumously in Novellen, 3 vol. (1828), include Jud Süss (The Jew Suss; serialized 1827).