This English introduction to the three major German Swiss writers of the nineteenth century focuses on them both as especially appropriate representatives of German literature for that period and as markedly Swiss writers with decidedly Swiss orientations. The text presents separate chapters on each of these writers followed by translations of representative novellas. It includes Gotthelf's Hans Joggeli, der Erbvetter, Keller's Pankraz der Schmoller and Der Schmied seines Gluckes, and Meyer's Die Hochzeit des Monchs.