The manuscript of Abundance of Life, displayed here, is the only one of Ludwig Tieck’s major works to have survived in handwritten form. Tieck wrote the novella in summer 1837, just a few months after the death of his wife Amalie. It was scheduled for publication in Urania, the yearly almanac of the Brockhaus publishing house, but by the time it arrived in mid-August 1837, the almanac had already been printed. The publisher returned the manuscript to Tieck, who made revisions and resubmitted it in early 1838. This time he only sent a copy, and the original survived in his possession. Critics of the day considered the novella weak and eccentric. Today, Abundance of Life is the best known of Tieck’s later narratives.