About CALIDER.

We translate directly from the original language, without abridgement. Each book names the source edition and sets out the approach taken to the translation.

Notes explain historical references and unfamiliar terms. Timelines and appendices give readers more to explore. We record editorial changes and the edition or printing in which they appear.

Some books leave you wanting to stay a little longer. You look up the people and places, return to a puzzling passage, or wonder what became of the story on stage and screen.

We prepare notes and appendices for that kind of reading: essays, character guides, historical background and the work’s life in popular culture. What belongs in each book depends on the work and the questions it leaves behind.

On 10 November 1867, Reclam launched the Universal-Bibliothek in Leipzig. The idea was simple: complete works in inexpensive volumes, each with its own number. Goethe and Schiller could find a place on many more readers’ shelves.

Each volume had a number, and a modest price. Complete classics became books that many more readers could afford.

Sources: Reclam Museum · Encyclopaedia Britannica