1914. This volume contains two works by the critical genius Lessing. His writing is peerless in its comprehensiveness, its keenness and depth; but this was particularly true of the drama. Laokoon deals with the limits of poetry and painting and it may be said that the great era of German literature commenced with these works. Laokoon, in its style, in its subtlety and clearness, in its breadth of intellectual vision, was a treatise that the likes of which had never been seen before.