After the unforgiveable introduction by Nigel Reeves & David Luke, whose analysis seems to consist largely of giving away the plot and outcome of every story....
...it proved not bad. Somewhat modern, or approaching, a perfectly good book of short stories very much of the Period, my favorite of which was undoubtedly Michael Kohlhass, a disgruntled horse trader much abused by the law who is forced to take matters in his own hands to seek justice, rounds up a posse of grooms and peasants and leads a seige upon Wittenberg.
How sympathetic - and modern the character is, in his outlawery, in how as he grows in strength he grows in Madness, the theme of an honest man vs the unjust state, how thoroughly modern he is when again he sees the Gypsy who gave him the talisman that would save his life, thoroughly pragmatic when he says to her (essentially) "Why Me?" in response to the incredible events that have befallen him.
So, a relatively thick book, now on to a relatively thin one - Italo Calvinos' "The Castle of Crossed Destinies".