"Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is a collection of novellas published in 1795. A baroness and her family flee the French Revolutionary Army, seeking refuge on the right bank of the Rhine. Political tensions between conservatives and revolution sympathizers threaten to tear the group apart. To maintain peace, they agree to avoid discussing current events and instead tell each other stories—ghost tales, anecdotes, and moral narratives—while cannons bombard nearby Mainz. Their storytelling becomes both escape and exploration of human nature during turbulent times. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
These books are free to read. Each is in the public domain in the United States; check your own country's rules before you copy or share one.
