The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Karpeles, Gustav

KARPELES', kăr'pĕ-lĕs, Gustav, Austrian critic and historian: b. Eiwanowitz, Moravia, 1848; d. 1909. On the completion of his studies at Breslau he became a journalist there; but ambition took him to Berlin in 1877. There he gradually attained the reputation of being one of the soundest critics in Germany and an authority on Heine and his literary work. Among his published works are his ‘Autobiography’ of Heine collected from his letters and works (1888); ‘Ludwig Börne’; ‘Nikolaus Lenau’; ‘Friedrich Spielhagen’ (1889); ‘Goethe in Polen’ (1889); ‘Graf Moltke als Redner’ (1890); ‘Die Frauen in der Jüdischen Litteratur’; ‘Geschichte der Jüdischen Litteratur’; ‘Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur’ (1891); ‘Jewish Literature’ (1895); ‘A Sketch of Jewish History’ (1897). Karpeles was of a Jewish family, hence his interest in Jewish history.