In 1835 , his first play , Dantons Tod ( Danton 's Death ) , about the French revolution , was published , followed by Lenz . It is a novella based on the life of the Sturm und Drang poet Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz . In 1835 , his first play , Dantons Tod ( Danton 's Death ) , about the French revolution , was published , followed by Lenz ( first partly published in Karl Gutzkow 's and Wienberg 's Deutsche Revue , which was quickly banned ) ; Lenz is a novella based on the life of the Sturm und Drang poet Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz .