Obermann, the epistolary novel by the French Romantic Senancour, inspired Liszt to write the first volume in his collection Années de Pèlerinage (HN 173). A wanderer is searching for his ideals in the solitude of the Swiss mountains. The composer was able to identify with these ideas to such a great degree that he prefaced the eighth piece (Le Mal de Pays) with an extract from the novel's 38th letter. It is this text which also accompanies our edition of the sixth piece Vallée d'Obermann. To aid comprehension we have also included translations of the French orginal into German and English. Now the most important composition in the Années I is also available in a separate Henle urtext edition.