Born July 19, 1819, in Zürich; died there July 15, 1890. Swiss author, writing in German.
Keller studied in Munich at the Academy of Arts from 1840 to 1842. He began his literary career in 1846 as a writer of political verse. During a stay in Germany between 1848 and 1855, he became acquainted with L. Feuerbach’s materialist philosophy, which influenced his outlook. In 1855 he published the novel Green Henry, written in the tradition of the 18th-century Bildungsroman, whose protagonist is an artist who seeks to find his way in the midst of a cruel struggle for existence. A realistic portrayal of bourgeois relations merges with illusions of an idyllic unity of nations. In Zürich he published the collections of novellas The People of Seldwyla (vols. 1–2, 1856–74), Seven Legends (1872), Zürich Novellas (1878), and Epigram (1881).
A true educator, Keller seeks to influence the reader by fostering civic consciousness and a humanistic outlook. In the novellas of his first collection he attacks philistinism. Romantic ardor, vivid imagery, and gentle humor mark his artistic style. The collection Seven Legends, a passionate hymn to life, shows his hatred of religious mysticism. The stories in Zürich Novellas, based on historical material, evoke Swiss customs and society, affirming petit bourgeois democratic ideals. The works of the 1880’s, written during the crisis of Swiss democracy, reveal a narrowing of Keller’s social outlook, for example, Epigram and the novel Martin Salander (1886), depicting life in Switzerland.
E. M. MANDEL’