"In Liebesflammenqual vorm Jahr
und doch frisch angesengt schon heuer?
Das alte Sprichwort lügt fürwahr –
gebrannte Kinder lockt das Feuer."

Paul Heyse was born in Berlin, the son of Karl Ludwig Heyse, a notable philologist, and Julie (Saaling) Heyse, the daughter of a prominent Jewish family, a well-to-do court jeweler related to the Mendelssohns. Their home was a salon for artists and writers, one of whom, the art historian Franz Kugler, became a mentor for the young Heyse. He was instriduced to Kugler by the poet Emanuel Geibel. Heyse soon became engaged to his daughter, Margarete Kugler; they married in 1854 and had four children.

Heyse was educated at the Friedrich Wilhelm-Gymnasium, Berlin, and at Berlin and Bonn universities, where he studied classical literature and philology. During this period he came into contact with Jacob Burckhardt, Theodor Fontane, Adolph Menzel, and Theodor Storm, joining their literary circle. His first poem, 'Frühlingsanfang 1848,' was published in the revolutionary year of 1848. In 1852 Heyse received his doctorate – his dissertation dealt with the poetry of the troubadours. With the help of a research grant by the Prussian Ministry of Culture Heyse went to Italy in 1852 for a year. During this journey he researched on Provençal manuscripts and planned to become a university lecturer. His studies were published by W. Hertz under the title Romanische Inedita auf italiänischen Bibliotheken (1856).

At Emanuel Geibel's recommendation, the Bavarian king Maximilian II made Heyse a court poet with an annual salary of 1000 guilders, which enabled him to devote himself entirely to the writing of verse tragedies, novellas, and poems. Heyse's first story,  Der Jungbrunnen, had appeared in 1850, but he had not published much, except a few romantic stories and verses, one tragedy, and one novella. Francesca da Rimini (1850) started his production of tragedies, and was continued with Meleager (1854), Die Sabinerinnen (1859), Elfriede (1877), Graf Köninsmarck (1877), and Alkibiades (1880). His other dramas include Elisabet Charlotte (1864), Hadrian (1865), Maria Maroni (1865), Kolberg (1865), Hans Lange (1866), Die Göttin der Vernunft (1870), and Die Weiber Von Schorndorf (1881).

Heyse settled with his wife in a villa on the Luisenstraße in Munich. Writers traveled there to meet him, just as they once had traveled to Weimar to see Goethe. After the death of Margarete in 1862, Hayse married in 1866 Anna Schubart, a young woman from Munich.  After King Maximilian II died suddenly in 1864, his successor Ludwig II continued Heyse's stipend. With his friend Geibel he became the leader of a group of writers who opposed the growing trend toward realism. When Geibel's pension was revoked and he was dismissed from the court after writing a poem in which he expressed his hope for a unitd Germany under Prussia, Heyse resigned in protest but continued to live in Munich without particular adventures. During each winter he migrated to Gardone Riviera, Lake Garda. There he stayed at a house called villa Annina (today villa Itolanda).

Though at first his plays did not gain success, the patriotic Kolberg brought him popularity on the stage, and he was eventually awarded in 1884 the Schiller Prize. Upon the publication of the Danish translation of Heyse's novel Kinder der Welt (1872, The Children of the World), the philosopher Georg Brandes wrote him saying that everyone in Scandinavia was reading it. Fridtjof Nansen's polar ship Fram stocked a wide selection of Heyse's books on its expedition to the North Pole in 1893.

Heyse's religous drama Maria von Magdala (1899, Mary of Magdala) was attacked by the conservative press, but as a reaction antiestablishment critics praised it. After the Berlin Goethe League held a closed, private performance of the play, its artistic quality was examined from a more objective point of view. The story revolves around Jesus, who never appears. He is not presented as a sacred character by as a man. Mary of Magdala and Judas, portrayed as a Hebrew patriot and a hero, are lovers. The play was forbidden by the censors in Germany, but the American production, starring Minnie Maddern Fiske and Tyrone Power, Sr, was staged without accusations of sacrilege. Originally written in prose, this version was translated into verse. Other changes were made, too.

Heyse was made a nobleman by the King of Bavaria in 1910. In the same year that he was awarded the Nobel Prize, Heyse was made a honorary citizen of Munich. Heyse died of pneumonia on April 2, 1914, just a few months before the outbreak of World War I, which destroyed the bourgeoisie world of his stories. His works were soon forgotten by young critics with the rise of naturalism and such writers as Henrik Ibsen and Émile Zola. Heyse's villa was later turned into a lacquer factory. However, the German scholar Christiane Ullman has argued that Heyse's "delineation of the condition humaine belongs to the great realist tradition of Balzac and Keller." As a poet Heyse devoted himself to an ideal of beauty, which seemed outdated against impressionistic and naturalistic currents of literature. Toril Moi has called Heyse "the last highly respected, widely successful, self-consciously idealist writer in Europe" (Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theater, Philosophy by Toril Moi, 2006, p. 59).

Heyse's technical mastery of the novella form is seen in L'Arrabbiata (1857), a love story set in Italy. He wrote the work in 1855 with others and in 1858 separately. It depicts a fisher maiden who first repulses the advances of a young ferry operator only to fall in love with him. With H. Kurz and others he published Deutscher Novellenschatz (1870-76, Treasury of German Novellas). In his 'Einleitung' to the Novellenschatz (1871) and his book of memoir, Jugenderinnerungen und Bekenntnisse (1900, Memories of My Youth and Confessions), Heyse put forth the popular 'Falkentheorie' (Falcon Theory), the view that each novella should have a distinguishable central image, 'a silhouette', and a sharp turning point, such as the falcon in the ninth story of the fifth day of Boccaccio's Decamerone. Moreover, Heyse required that this motif recur throughout the story. "A novella of literary value," Heyse said, "should represent an important human destiny. It must not be an everyday occurence but should reveal to us a new side of human nature. The narrow scope of the tale calls for strict concentration."

A mass-producer, Heyse himself wrote well over 100 Novellen, many of which were set in Italy or the Mediterranean generally, dealing with psychological problems. Often the central character reveals to an outsider, the narrator, a secret of his or her life. Heyse's major collections include Novellen (1855), Neue Novellen (1858), Neue Novellen (1862), Meraner Novellen  (1864),  Das Ding an Sich: Und Andere Novellen (1879), Troubadour Novellen (1882), Unvergeßbare Worte (1883), Himmlische und irdische Liebe (1886), and Novellen vom Gardasee (1902). Heyse also produced many translations from Italian, Spanish, and English literature.

For further information: 'A Medea Called Wally: Race, Madness and Fashion in Paul Heyse's Novella Medea' by H. Bartel, H., in German Life and Letters, Vol. 64; Number 1 (2011); Paul Heyse: ein Schriftsteller zwischen Deutschland und Italien, ed. by Roland Berbig, Walter Hettche (2001); Der Zensurprozess um Paul Heyses Drama "Maria von Magdala" (1901-1903): ein Beispiel für die Theaterzensur im Wilhelminischen Preussen by Andreas Pöllinger (1989); Nobel Prize Winners, ed by Tyler Wasson (1987, pp. 460-461); Paul Heyse by Sigrid von Moisy (1981); Paul Heyse: eine Bibliographie seiner Werke by W. Martin (1978); Paul Heyse and Three of His Critics by J. Adrian (1972); Realism and Reality by Walter Silz (1954); Heyse's Novellentechnik by P. Zincke (1928); Creative Spirits in the Nineteenth Century by G. Brandes (1923); Essays on Books by W.L. Phelps (1914); Paul Heyse by A. Farinelli (1913); Heyse als Dramatiker by E. Petzet (1904)

Selected works:

• FRÜHLINGSANFANG 1848, 1848
• DER JUNGBRUNNEN, 1850
• FRANZESKA VON RIMINI, 1850
• SPANISCHES LIEDERBUCH, 1852 (translator, ed. with E. Geibel)
• DIE BRÜDER: EINE CHINESISCHE GESCHICHTE IN VERSEN, 1852
• URICA, NOVELLE IN VERSEN, 1852
• HERMEN, 1854
• MELEAGER, 1854
• DIE PFÄLZER IN IRLAND, 1854
• NOVELLEN, 1855 (contains Die Blinden, Marion, L' Arrabiata, Am Tiberufer)
  - L'Arrabbiata and Other Tales (translated by Mary Wilson, 1867) / Heyse's L'Arrabbiata in English (edited by Warren Washburn Florer, 1902) / L'Arrabbiata (translated by Vivian Elsie Lyon, 1916)
• MARION, 1855
• ROMANISCHE IDENDITA AUF ITALIÄNISCHEN BIBLIOTHEKEN, 1856
• DIE BRAUT VON CYPERN, 1856
  - The Wedding at Capri, in The Cosmopolitan (tr. January 1894)
• THEKLA, 1858
• NEUE NOVELLEN, 1858 (contains Erkenne dich selbst, Das Mädchen von Treppi, Der Kreisrichter, Helene Morten)
  - The Maid of Treppi, in The Strand Magazine (tr. 1891)
• JOSÉ CAVEDA: GESCHICHTE DER BAUKUNST IN SPANIEN, 1858 (translated by Paul Heyse)
• BILD DER MUTTER, 1859
• VIER NEUE NOVELLEN, 1859
• DIE SABINERINNEN, 1859
• ITALIENISCHES LIEDERBUCH, 1860 (translation)
• DIE GRAFEN VON DER ESCHE, 1861
• LUDWIG DER BAYER, 1862
• NEUE NOVELLEN, 1862 (contains Annina, Im Grafenschloss, Andrea Delfin: eine venezianische novelle, Auf der Alm)
  - Andrea Delfin (translated by Gunther Olesch, 2000)
  - Andrea Delfin (suom. Anton Oskar Forsman ja August Wilhelm Ervasti, 1881)
• EIN MÜNCHENER DICHTERBUCH, 1862
• RAFAEL, 1862
• ELISABETH CHARLOTTE, 1864
• GESAMMELTE NOVELLEN IN VERSEN, 1864
• DRAMATISCHE DICHTUNGEN, 1864-1905
• MERANER NOVELLEN, 1864
• KOLBERG, 1865
• HADRIAN, 1865
• MARIA MORONI, 1865
• FÜNF NEUE NOVELLEN, 1866
• HANS LANGE, 1866
  - Hans Lange: näytelmä viidessä näytöksessä (suom. C. Edv. Törmänen, 1879)
• ANTONIUS UND KLEOPATRA, 1866 (translator, from Shakespeare's play)
• FÜNF NEUE NOVELLEN, 1866 (contains Franz Alzeyer, Die Reise nach dem Glück, Die kleine Mama, Kleopatra, Die Witwe von Pisa)
  - Kleopatra: novelli (suom. 1891)
• DIE GLÜCKLICHEN BETTLER, 1867
• NOVELLEN UND TERZINEN, 1867 (contains Syritha, Mutter und Kind, Auferstanden, Der Salamander, Beatrice)
  - Doomed (tr. 1870); Fortnight at the Dead Lake, and Beatrice (tr. 1881)
• TIMON VON ATHEN, 1868 (translator, from Shakespeare's play)
• DER ROTMANTEL, 1868 (translation)
• ANTOLOGIA DEI MODERNI POETI ITALIANI, 1868 (editor)
• MORALISCHE NOVELLEN, 1869 (contains Die beiden Schwestern, Lorenz und Lore, Vetter Gabriel, Am toten See, Der Turm von Nonza)
  - Gabriel Serkku (suom. Kaarlo-n, 1890)
• DIE GÖTTIN DER VERNUFT, 1870
• ADAM UND EVA, 1870
• The Dead Lake and Other Tales, 1870 (Am toten See und andere Erzählungen, translated by Mary Wilson, includes A Fortnight at the Dead Lake, Doomed, Beatrice, Beginning and End)
• GESAMMELTE NOVELLEN IN VERSEN, 1870
• DEUTSCHER NOVELLENSCHATZ, 1870-76 (24 vols., ed. with others)
• DIE FRANZOSENBRAUT, 1871
• DER FRIENDE, 1871
• EIN NEUES NOVELLENBUCH, 1871 (contains Barbarossa, Die Stickerin von Treviso, Lottka, Der letxte Centaur)
  - Barbarossa, and Other Tales, 1874 (Barbarossa und andere Erzählungen, translated by L.C.S., contains Barbarossa, The Embroideress of Treviso, Lottka, The Lost Son, The Fair Kate, Geoffrey and Garcinde)
  - Geoffroy ja Garcinde (suom. Emil af Hällström, 1882); Trevison koru-ompelijatar (suom. Helmi Krohn, 1913 )
• GESAMMELTE WERKE, 1872-1914 (38 vols.)
• EIN ABENTEUER, 1872
• GEDICHTE, 1872
• KINDER DER WELT, 1872 
  - The Children of the World (tr. 1883; rev. ed. 1894)
• HERMANN KURZ: GESAMMELTE WERKE, 1874 (5 vols., editor)
• IM PARADIESE, 1875
  - In Paradise (tr. 1878)
• NEUE NOVELLEN, 1875
• EHRE UM EHRE, 1875
• GIUSEPPE GIUSTI, SEIN LEBEN UND SEINE DICHTUNGEN, 1875 (edited and translated by Paul Heyse)
• ELFRIDE, 1877
• GRAF KÖNIGSMARK, 1877
• ITALIANISCHE NOVELLISTEN, 1877 (6 vols., editor)
• NEUE MORALISCHE NOVELLEN, 1878
• GIACOMO LEOPARDI: WERKE, 1878 (editor)
• ZWEI GEFANGENE, 1878
  - Two Prisoners (tr. 1893)
  - Kaksi vankia: novelli (suomentanut H. T., 1907)
• DAS DING AN SICH UND ANDERE NOVELLEN, 1879
• DIE MADONNA IM ÖLWALD, 1879
• UNTER DEN GRÜNDLINGEN, 1879
• VERSE AUS ITALIEN, 1880
• ARIOSTO: RASENDER ROLAND, 1880 (editor, translated by Hermann Kurz)
• FRAU VON F. UND RÖMISCHE NOVELLEN, 1881 (contains Frau von F., Die talentvolle Mutter, Romulusenkel, Die Hexe vom Korso)
  - The Witch of the Corso (translated by George W. Ingraham, 1882)
• DIE WEIBER VON SCHORNDORF, 1881
• DAS GLÜCK VON ROTHENBURG, 1881
  - The Spell of Rothenburg, in Works (tr. 1914)
• ALKIBIADES, 1882
• TROUBADOUR-NOVELLEN, 1882
• NEUES MÜNCHENER DICHTERBUCH, 1882 (editor)
• DER TRAUMGOTT, 1882
• DAS RECHT DES STÄRKEREN, 1883
• UNVERGESSBARE WORTE UND ANDERE NOVELLEN, 1883
  - Words Never To Be Forgotten and The Donkey (translated by Abbie E. Fordyce, 1888)
  - Unohtumattomia sanoja (suom. 1911)
• BUCH DER FREUNDSCHAFT, 1883
• DON JUANS ENDE, 1883
  - The Last Days of Don Juan (tr. 1914)
• BUCH DER FREUNDSHAFT, 1883
• SIECHENTROST, 1883
• BUCH DER FREUNDSCHAFT, NEUE FOLGE, 1884
• DREI EINAKTIGE TRAUERSPIELE UND EIN LUSTSPIELE, 1884
• NEUER DEUTCHER NOVELLENSCHATZ, 1884-1887 (24 vols., editor; contains Der verlorene Sohn, vol. 23)
  - Tuhlaajapoika (suomentanut Helmi Krohn, 1914)
• SPRUCHBÜCHELEIN, 1885
• GEDICHTE, 1885
• HIMMLISCHE UND IRDISCHE LIEBE, 1886
• AUF TOD UND LEBEN, 1886
• GETRENNTE WELTEN, 1886
• DIE HOCHZEIT AUD DEM AVENTIN, 1886
• DER WEISHEIT SALOMOS, 1887
• DER ROMAN DER STIFTSDAME, 1887
• VILLA FALCONIERI UND ANDERE NOVELLEN, 1888
• GOTT SCHÜTZE MICH VOR MEINEN FREUNDEN, 1888
• PRINZESSIN SASCHA, 1888
• Two Novellettes from the German of Paul Heyse, 1888 (translated by A.E. Fordyse, contains Words Never To Be Forgotten, The Donkey)
• WELTUNTERGANG, 1889
• KLEINE DRAMEN: ERSTE FOLGE, 1889 (Im Bunde der Dritte, Der Venusdurchgang, Nur keinen Eifer, In sittlicher Entrüstung)
• KLEINE DRAMEN: ZWEITE FOLGE, 1889 (Eine erste Liebe, Eine Dante-Lektüre, Zwischen Lipp und Bechersrand, Die schwereste Pflicht)
• LIEBESZAUBER: ORIENTALISCHE DICHTUNG, 1889
• ITALIENISCHE DICHTER, 1889-1905 (5 vols., translator)
• NOVELLEN, 1890 (3 vols., 1.: L'Arrabbiata, Anfang und Ende. Andrea Delfin, Unheilbar; 2.: Vetter Gabriel, Die beiden Schwestern, Er soll dein Herr sein, Der verlorene Sohn, Nerina; 3.: Unvergessbare Worte, Die Dichterin von Carcassonne, Das Glück von Rothenburg, Siechentrost)
• EIN ÜBERFLÜSSIGER MENSCH, 1890
• WEINACHTSGESCHICHTEN, 1891
• DIE SCHLIMMEN BRÜDER, 1891
  - Veljesten kesken: yksinäytöksinen huvinäytelmä (suom. Hilda Asp, 1897)
• WEINCHTSGESCHICHTEN, 1891
• AUS DEN VORBERGEN, 1892
• MERLIN, 1892 (3 vols.)
• MARIENKIND, 1892
• WAHRHEIT, 1892
• EIN UNBESCHRIEBENES BLATT, 1893
• JUNGFER JUSTINE, 1893
• AUS DEN VORBERGEN, 1893
• IN DER GEISTERSTUNDE UND ANDRE SPUKGESCHICHTEN, 1894
  - At the Ghost Hour (translated by Frances A. Van Santford, 1894)
• A Divided Heart, and Other Stories, 1894 (translated by Constance Stewart Copeland)
• WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH, 1894
• MEINE ERSTINGSWERKE, 1894
• ÜBER ALLEN GIPFELN, 1895
• MELUSINE UND ANDRE NOVELLEN, 1895
• ÜBER ALLEN GIPFELN, 1895
• ROLANDS SCHILDKNAPPEN ODER DIE KOMÖDIE VOM GLÜCK, 1896
• VANINA VANINI, 1896
• DIE FORNARINA, 1896
• DAS GOETHEHAUS IN WEIMAR, 1896
• VERRATENES GLÜCK. EMERENZ, 1896
• EINER VON HUNDERTEN. HOCHZEIT AUF CAPRI, 1896
• ABENTEUER EINES BLAUSTRÜMPFCHENS, 1896
  - Adventures of a Little Blue-Stocking, in Magazine The International (Vol. 1., 1986)
  - Sinisukan seikkailu (suom. Toini Kivimäki, 1929)
• DAS RÄTSEL DES LEBENS UND ANDERE CHARAKTERBILDER, 1897
• MÄNNERTREU. DER SOHN SEINES VATERS, 1897
• DREI NEUE EINAKTER, 1897
• NEUE GEDICHTE UND JUGENDLIEDER, 1897
• DER SOHN SEINES VATERS UND ANDERE NOVELLEN, 1898
• MEDEA. ER SOLL DEIN HERR SEIN, 1898
• DER BUCKLIGE VON SCHIRAS, 1898
• MARTHA'S BRIEFE AN MARIA, 1898
• NEUE MÄRCHEN, 1899
• DAS LITERARISCHE MÜNCHEN, 1899
• MARIA VON MAGDALA, 1899
  - Mary of Magdala; an Historical and Romantic Drama in Five Acts (translated by Alexis Irénée du Pont Coleman, 1900; Lionel Vale, 1902; William Winter, 1903)
• DIE MACHT DER STUNDE. VRONI, 1899
  - The Power of the Hour, in The English Illustrated Magazine (1904)
• FRÄULEIN JOHANNE, 1900
• DER SCHUTZENGEL, 1900
• JUGENDERINNERUNGEN UND BEKENNTNISSE, 1900
• DAS VERSCHLIERTE BILD ZU SAIS, 1901
• TANTALUS. MUTTER UND KIND, 1901
• NINON UND ANDERE NOVELLEN, 1902
• GESAMMELTE WERKE, 1902-1912 (42 vols.)
• NOVELLEN VOM GARDASEE, 1902
• DER HEILIGE, 1902
  - The Saint (tr. 1902)
• MORALISCHE UNMÖGLICHKEITEN UND ANDERE NOVELLEN, 1903
• EIN WINTERTAGEBÜCH, 1903
• MYTHEN UND MYSTERIEN, 1904
• LODOVICO ARIOSTOS SATIREN, 1904 (editor)
• HERMANN LINGG: AUSGEWÄHLTE GEDICHTE, 1905 (editor)
• CRONE STÄUDLIN, 1905
• DIE TÖRICHTEN JUNGFRAUEN, 1905
• EIN KANADIER, 1905
• GETREU BIS IN DEN TOD. ERKENNE DICH SELBST, 1905
• SECHS KLEINE DRAMEN, 1905
• VICTORIA REGIA UND ANDERE NOVELLEN, 1906
• GEGEN DEN STORM, 1907
• MENSCHEN UND SCHICKSALE, 1908
• WALDMONOLOGE AUS KREUTH, 1908
• HERZENSBANDE, 1908
• HELLDUNKLES LEBEN, 1909
• DIE GEBURT DER VENUS, 1909
• KÖNIG SAUL, 1909
• MUTTER UND TOCHTER, 1909
• SEELSORGER, 1909
• DIE GEISTER DES RHEINS, 1910
• DAS EWIGMENSCHLICHE. ERINNERUNGEN AUS EINEM ALLTAGSLEBEN. EIN FAMILIENHAUS, 1910
• JUGENDERINNERUNGEN UND BEKENNTNISSE, 1912 (2 vols., 5th ed.)
• DER KREISRICHTER. RITA, 1912
• PLAUNDEREIEN EINES FREUNDESPAARES, 1912
• ITALIENISCHE VOLKSMÄRCHEN, 1912 (translator)
• DREI ITALIENISCHE LUSTSPIELE AUS DER ZEIT RENAISSANCE, 1914 (translator)
• Works, 1914 (includes Blind, L'Arrabbiata, Nino and Naso, The Spell of Rothenburg)
• LETZTE NOVELLEN, 1914
• ER SEBST. HERZENBANDE, 1916
• DER BRIEFWECHSEL VON JAKOB BURCKHARDT UND PAUL HEYSE, 1916 (edited by Georg J. Plotke)
• DER BRIEFWECHSEL ZWISCHEN PAUL HEYSE UND THEODOR STORM, 1917 (edited by Georg J. Plotke)
• AUSGEWÄHLTE GEDICHTE, 1919
• DIE BRIEFWECHSEL VON EMANUEL GEIBEL UND PAUL HEYSE, 1922 (edited by Erich Petzet)
• ITALIENISCHE NOVELLEN, 1924 (2 vols.)
• GESAMMELTE WERKE, 1924 (15 vols., edited by E. Petzet)
• DER BRIEFWECHSEL VON THEODOR FONTANE UND PAUL HEYSE, 1929 (edited by Erich Petzet)
• BRIEFWECHSEL ZWISCHEN JOSEPH VICTOR VON SCHEFFEL UND PAUL HEYSE, 1932 (edited by Conrad Hofer)
• BRIEFWECHSEL VON PAUL HEYSE UND MARIE VON EBNER-ESCHENBACH, 1935
• DIE HEXE VOM CORSO UND ANDERE NOVELLEN. MIT DEN NOVELLENTHEORIE, 1969 (afterword by Anne Feichtner-von Ian)
• THEODOR STORM-PAUL HEYSE BRIEFWECHSEL KRITISCHE AUSGABE, 1969-74 (3 vols, edited by Clifford Albrecht Bernd)
• NOVELLEN, 1970 (introduction by Manfred Schunicht)
• DER BRIEFWECHSEL ZWISCHEN THEODOR FONTANE UND PAUL HEYSE, 1972 (edited by Gotthard Erler)
• DER BRIEFWECHSEL VON JAKOB BURCKHARDT UND PAUL HEYSE, 1974 (edited by  Erich Petzet)
• WERKE, 1980 (2 vols., edited by Bernhard Knick, Johanna Knick, Hildegard Korth)
• MORALISCHE NOVELLEN, 1980
• DIE KAISERIN VON SPINETTA UND ANDERE LIEBESGESCHICHTEN, 1981
• DU HAS ALLES, WAS MIR FEHLT--: GOTTFRIED KELLER IM BRIEFWECHSEL MIT PAUL HEYSE, 1990 (edited by Fridolin Stahli)
• EIN BUCH DER FREUNDSCHAFT ÜBER GETRENNTE WELTEN HINWEG: DIE KORRESPONDENZ ZWISCHEN WILHELM BOLIN UND PAUL HEYSE, 1992 (edited by Susanne Frejborg)
• EIN GEFÜHL DER VERWANDTSCHAFT: PAUL HEYSES BRIEFWECHSEL MIT EDUARD MÖRIKE, 1997 (edited by Rainer Hillenbrand)
• NOVELLEN, 1998  (edited by Rainer Hillenbrand)
• PAUL HEYSES BRIEFE AN WILHELM PETERSEN: MIT HEYSES BRIEFEN AN ANNA PETERSEN, VIER BRIEFEN PETERSENS AN HAYSE UND EINIGEN ERGÄNZENDEN SCHREIBEN AUS DEM FAMILIENKREISE, 1998 (edited by Rainer Hillenbrand)
• DER BRIEFWECHSEL ZWISCHEN PAUL HEYSE UND HERMANN LEVI: EINE KRITISCHE EDITION, 2007 (edited by Julia Bernhardt)