Gottfried Keller (1819-90) is the greatest prose writer of the nineteenth-century Switzerland, and the finest of his novels and stories have assured him European stature. Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe, from the first volume of his collection of stories entitled Die Leute von Seldwyla (1856-74), ranks among his most popular works.As its title indicates, it concerns two young lovers who are separated by the enmity between their families. The story is a masterpiece of narrative realism in that it offers a sustained and powerful comprehension of the ways in which the pressures an processes of social conditioning are operative in the life of the individual. At the heart of this concern is Keller's ability to reflect on the interplay of order and anarchic energies in human experience.This work by the Swiss poet, Gottfried Keller, is part of the German Texts series, designed to meet the needs of the fast-growing A-Level and undergraduate level students of the German language. Each text comes with English notes and vocabulary, and with an introduction by an editor with an expert knowledge both of the work and of its literary and cultural context.