A Tribute to Rolf-Peter Lessenich (d. February 2019)

Romanticists all over the world will be dismayed to learn that Rolf Peter Lessenich passed away suddenly in early February 2019.

Although he was approaching 80, he was still an indefatigable and prolific writer on a wide range of comparative literature, from the Classical tradition of Dryden and Pope to Romanticism and late Victorian decadence.

His well-meaning, erudite and ever-supportive voice will be sorely missed by his students, colleagues, friends and all those who had the privilege of being taught by him. And even if “poetry makes nothing happen,” as Auden was to write in his lament for Yeats’s death, Rolf Lessenich’s lectures, essays and books about literature have amply contributed to the knowledge, education and happiness of his ever-grateful students and friends.

Attached please find Norbert Lennartz's obituary.