The prophet of Romanticism

Just check out the oracle. I've never studied any of this. I wish I had though.

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Die Blaue Blume

This is the central symbol of German Romanticism. It stands for 'desire, love, and the metaphysical striving for the infinite and unreachable'. 
The English author Penelope Fitzgerald wrote her last novel, 'The Blue Flower', about Novalis. It is one of my favourite books. It is rather elliptical, dreamy and sad. It looks at the wonderfully civilised mittel-European tradition. Robert Graves also refers to this tradition in his foreword to 'Goodbye to All That'. I think it is something worth revisiting.
The eighteenth century was a difficult time to live. Galloping consumption and all that. The book has a sad ending.