author
Karl Philipp Moritz
1756–1793
A restless and wide-ranging figure of late 18th-century German literature, he turned a difficult early life into fiction that feels unusually modern. Best known for Anton Reiser, he helped bring psychological depth and everyday experience into the novel.
1 Audiobook
Travels in England in 1782
by Karl Philipp Moritz
About the author
Born in Hameln on September 15, 1756, Karl Philipp Moritz was a German writer, editor, and essayist whose work sits between the late Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and early classicism. His life was unsettled and varied: he worked in several roles, including apprentice, teacher, journalist, critic, and later professor, and he became an influential presence in Berlin literary life.
Moritz is best remembered for Anton Reiser (published in four parts between 1785 and 1790), an autobiographical novel often praised for its unusually close attention to inner life and emotional struggle. He also wrote Andreas Hartknopf and produced essays on literature, language, and art, helping shape discussions that would matter to both classicism and early Romanticism.
He died in Berlin on June 26, 1793, at just 36 years old. Even with a short life, his writing left a lasting mark because of its honesty, psychological insight, and interest in how a person forms a self under pressure.