From the Alps to urbanity: It is not in Albrecht von Haller's glorification of the Alps that Loetscher sees the origins of Swiss literature, but rather in the autobiography of Thomas Platter, the country lad who leaves the mountains to try his luck in Basle, the city of humanism. Thus we are afforded an unconventional outlook, through and beyond literature, on an identity stretching from Salomon Gessner's false flute idyll to the uncomfortable atmosphere of Gottfried Keller's Seldwyla, from the hasty shelters of Ludwig Hohl to Adrien Turel's yearning for the future. A remarkable gallery of figures is thereby assembled, including the »poor devil« Friedrich Glauser, the unusual Marxist Konrad Farner and the gifted »phoney« Blaise Cendrars. The essays are not wholly impersonal when the author writes of his »difficult admiration« for Max Frisch or his remembrances of Friedrich Dürrenmatt, who plays a leading role in this collection. One learns a few things about people such as Adolf Muschg and Niklaus Meienberg in a Swiss chat room. Whatever the debate at hand, those who read instead of climb will once again enjoy brilliant essays by Hugo Loetscher.