Volume VI,2 of the historical-critical edition of Droste-Hülshoff's writings provides the first comprehensive documentation of her essays in the dramatic genre, an area in which there has been heightened research interest in the last few years. Of outstanding importance here is the comedy »PERDU! oder Dichter, Verleger und Blaustrümpfe« (PERDU!, or Writers, Publishers and Bluestockings) not least for the indications it contains about Droste's own sense of identity as a writer. Her other dramas and dramatic fragments are all juvenilia: the tragedy »Bertha oder die Alpen« (Bertha, or The Alps), the one-page fragment of a tragedy »Hedwig und Sophie oder Verzweiflung und Rache« (Hedwig and Sophie, or Despair and Revenge) and two essays in the comic genre: »Das Räthsel oder Wie viele Pfund Freyer gehen auf 1 Pfund Nehmer / Antwort: Keins denn sie fliegen alle davon« (The Riddle ...) and »SCENEN aus Hülshoff« (SCENES from Hülshoff).