Gruenter Rainer was born in 1918 and has taught history of literature at the universities of Cologne, Heidelberg, Berlin and Mannheim. The essays in this book revolve around a central theme: the misery of aesthetic existence, seen from the perspective of someone who has made the reading of literary texts learned his profession. The traditional blues scholar is formulated with disturbing clarity Gruenter: "With special envy I always read the reviews of his readings made by people who were not professional readers. Claudel about Rimbaud, Eliot Virgilio, Jens Peter Jacobsen Rilke, Rudolf Borchardt on George ... " To what extent professionalism Reader affects the value of reading itself? This book aims to answer this crucial question for all literary historian.